Galangoor Djali (good day)
My name is Jade Gould; I have been newly elected to the Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation Board of Directors.
I have also been given the responsibility of building a relationship with FINIA and FIDO. The Butchulla people acknowledge the good work done for country by these groups.
I spent all of my childhood on Butchulla country growing, learning and connecting. What is good for the country comes first is a traditional Butchulla lore that guides me and my work, and this is what inspired me to pursue a university education. In 2015, I graduated from James Cook University with a Bachelor of Science majoring in Ecology and Conservation. I strongly believe that western science and Traditional Knowledge are two complementary sets of data we can use to better inform management practices.
I aim to use knowledge gained at university, and my
professional career coupled with Traditional Ecological Knowledge learnt while
living on country to help better manage country. I look forward to
gaining more knowledge about country and building better relationships with our
stakeholders.
Nhaa nyin bana (See you later)
FINIA 
Hi Jade
Good to see you at Rainbow Beach Bioblitz recently. Congratulations on being elected to the BAC. I am going to K’gari for the Happy Valley working bee with Peter Shooter from 9 till 15 June. I went earlier this year with Suzanne Wilson for an interim working bee with FIDO just before John died. I thought I might be able to help FIDO by writing articles for the Moonbi newsletter and other publications.
As you may already know, I am working on a PhD on the theme of John Sinclair’s relationship with nature conservation and K’gari in particular. I want to look at this from the context of other Australian nature preservation campaigns including the Gordon-below-Franklin and Terania Creek. I want to write a formal letter to the BAC explaining my research, although I spoke about it to some of the leaders at the Biosphere conference in Maryborough back in March.
I had several conversations with John before he died, about the project and luckily he signed a permission form to use his information. I want to include the BAC and any other Butchulla informants who would like to be involved. Hope to discuss it in more detail soon, Zela