[Music plays and an image appears of the Prime Minister’s Prize for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Knowledge Systems medallion in the centre screen, and text appears beneath: Professor Michael Wear]
[Image changes to show a close view of the sun shining down through the water, and then the image changes to show the seagrass on the ocean floor]
Prof Michael Wear: We’re saltwater people, we live by the ocean.
[Image changes to show rear views of Professor Michael Wear walking towards the ocean]
We have saltwater in our blood.
[Image changes to show a side profile view of Michael looking out with the sun behind him]
As Malgana people we are on a mission to look after Country and make sure Country looks after us.
[Image changes to show Michael sitting in a boat talking to the camera, and the medallion and text appears: Professor Michael Wear]
I’m Professor Michael Wear, and the founder of Tidal Moon.
[Image changes to show a close view of Michael talking to the camera, and then the image changes to show a view looking down on the township of Shark Bay]
I am from Shark Bay. I am Malgana person and I am a direct descendant of all the old people here. Shark Bay is located on the West Australian coastline.
[Image changes to show a rear view of Michael and his colleagues walking along a jetty towards their boat]
It is about 900kms away from Perth.
[Images move through to show the Tidal Moon boat tied up on the jetty, Michael and his colleagues working on the boat, a view of a seagrass bed, and then dying sea grass beds]
In 2011, 2012 there was a massive heat wave and the scientists that were up here all they saw was seagrass but we saw seagrass died, sea cucumber got bigger.
[Image changes to show Michael talking to the camera while sitting in the boat]
Seagrass is the lifeline of Shark Bay. Without seagrass Shark Bay doesn’t really exist.
[Images move through to show an aerial view looking down on the boat, a diver moving through the water, and a sea grass bed]
And sea cucumbers are the nutrient filters that clean the sea floor and make everything pristine.
[Images move through to show a diver collecting sea cucumbers and placing them in a specimen bag, and then Michael talking to the camera]
So, to help develop a model to protect our seagrass and protect Malgana country we had to rely on the symbiotic relationship between seagrass and sea cucumbers.
[Images move through to show a close view of a sea cucumber amongst sea grass, divers swimming through the water, and an aerial view of divers and the boat in the ocean]
And so the key for us is now capturing that and develop a way that we can train our people and give them skills on how to do seagrass restoration.
[Images move through to show divers collecting data in the seagrass beds, a diver finning his way up to the surface, and a crew member hauling a specimen bag onto the boat]
Indigenous people are curious and we like to observe nature.
[Images move through to show Michael and colleagues looking at an iPad, Michael nodding and listening, and a university researcher looking through a microscope at a sea cucumber]
Our data observations, we input it to our computers and it goes off to a place like Murdoch University and you have livestream of what the data has collected on the day in accordance with the tide, the moon, the date the weather, everything.
[Image changes to show Michael talking to the camera]
That data has never been collected in a cultural directed way where Indigenous people are leading.
[Images move through to show a researcher taking a sea cucumber from a jar, researchers in discussion, and a close view of the sea cucumber being held in gloved hands]
We wanted to explore ways on how we can use that commodity of a sea cucumber to go into the biomedical market.
[Image changes to show Michael talking to the camera, and then the image changes to show a close view of Michael talking to the camera]
The goal for us was to recreate Australia’s first trade and now we’re trying to expand on that. My goal now is to scale up, do it sustainable, help the ocean, help people through biomedical and make sure the jobs are there to be inherited by Malgana people.
[Images move through to show Michael placing the sea cucumbers on drying racks, and then holding a sea cucumber up and looking at it]
Tidal Moon is a free market enterprise but is based around science and culture. We view the sea cucumbers as something that can help the general population.
[Camera zooms in on the sea cucumber in Michael’s hand]
They have so many untapped resources within them.
[Images move through to show Michael talking to the camera, Michael’s colleagues on the boat laughing, a diver underwater, and Michael smiling at the camera]
For me to receive the Prime Minister’s Prize for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Knowledge Systems is unbelievable and I am so humbled to be the first but I don’t want to be the last.
[Music plays and the image changes to show the Prime Minister’s Prize for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Knowledge Systems medallion, and the Australian Government Coat of Arms, and text appears: 2025 Prime Minister’s Prize for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Knowledge Systems]
