News edition for 22 July 2026. Added to Nungya on 22 October 2026 as part of our retrospective news archive. Reporting reflects information available by the edition date.
An award is a public moment. The work it recognises may involve much quieter days in the water, noticing conditions and returning to a damaged habitat.
A profile published on 3 December 2025 names Professor Michael Wear as the inaugural recipient of the Prime Minister’s Prize for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Knowledge Systems. Wear is a Malgana Traditional Custodian of Shark Bay, or Gutharraguda, in Western Australia, and founder of Tidal Moon.
The account follows the enterprise’s work with scientists on seagrass restoration after the region’s severe 2011–12 marine heatwave. Aboriginal divers have a leading role in observation and restoration, with knowledge of Saltwater Country shaping the activity.
This is a look back at the 2025 prize and the work described in that report. It does not announce a 2026 winner or new measurements of restoration success.
The useful connection is between recognition and practice. Rather than treating Indigenous knowledge as an abstract addition to a science story, the profile names an enterprise and the people doing specific work. A reader can follow that work in its own setting, with attention to the community’s priorities.
Shark Bay is widely photographed for its scenery. This account offers another way of looking: a living marine environment being observed, worked in and cared for by people with responsibilities to it.
