This presentation outlines a decades long Wudjari led journey to identify, document, and interpret submerged ancient cultural corridors across Sea Country. Wudjari Ancient Coastlines (WAC) is a First Nations led, collaborative research program grounded in self determination across research design, logistics, and strategic operations. The program is led by the Esperance Tjaltjraak Native Title Aboriginal Corporation (ETNTAC) and supported by local and international research partners.
WAC integrates high resolution marine survey techniques - including seafloor and habitat mapping - with sedimentary analysis of past wetland and coastal deposits, such as drowned forests. These approaches are combined with investigations of contemporary coastal wetlands and on Country cultural sites to generate new understandings of submerged cultural places and landscapes. Together, this interdisciplinary methodology provides critical insights into long term Wudjari occupancy, movement, and relationship with coastal and marine environments across deep time.
The project directly supports skills development and applied research capacity within the Tjaltjraak Healthy Land and Sea Country program, operating under a cultural leadership model that positions research as a tool for governance, management, and intergenerational knowledge transmission. This work represents a long held aspiration of the Wudjari community: to bring cultural authority, emerging technologies, and applied management together within ETNTAC’s operational structures. The resulting model offers nationally and internationally significant contributions to Indigenous led landscape archaeology, submerged cultural heritage research, and biocultural management.