Implementing CARE Principles to Link Noongar Language and Knowledge to Western Science through the Atlas of Living Australia

The Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), Australia's national online biodiversity database, is partnering with the Noongar Boodjar Language Centre (NBALC) to promote Indigenous language and knowledge by including Noongar names for plants and animals in the ALA. Names are included in the ALA species page for each plant and animal and knowledge is built into the Noongar Plant and Animal online Encyclopedia, hosted in the ALA. We demonstrate the use of CARE principles (Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, and Ethics (Carroll et al. 2020)) to engage, support, and deliver the project and outcomes to the Noongar people and communities working with us. The ALA addresses the FAIR principles (Wilkinson et al. 2016) for data management and stewardship ensuring data are findable, accessable, interoperable, and reusable. The ALA is partnering with NBALC in Perth to ensure all sharing of Noongar data is on Noongar terms. NBALC and ALA have been working with Noongar-Wadjari, a southern clan from the Fitzgerald River area in Western Australia, to collect, protect and share their language and traditional knowledge for local species.*1 The Noongar Encyclopedia project exhibits Collective Benefit because it is a co-innovation project that was co-designed by NBALC and ALA. The project’s activities were designed by the Community-endorsed representatives, the Knowledge Holders. The aims and aspirations of the Community were included in the project design to ensure equitable outcomes. NBALC’s more than 25-year relationship with the Community, and as Noongar people themselves, meant they had a good understanding of what the Community might want from the project. These assumptions were tested and refined during the first Community consultation, before the project plan was finalised. The Community are keen for their traditional knowledge to be shared and freely available to their Community. The ALA only shared knowledge that has passed through strict consent processes. It is seen as a safe and stable digital environment for now and the future, and where the traditional knowledge can be accessed freely and easily. The link to western science knowledge is secondary to knowledge sharing for most of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities that the ALA are working with although the benefits of scientists having access to both knowledge systems is seen as a positive step in care for Country into the future. The Noongar Encyclopedia project ensures Noongar