Perth, Australia — Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland visited Perth, Australia, this week where she delivered remarks at an event hosted by the Perth USAsia Centre on the importance of Indigenous- led conservation and co-stewardship partnerships as key tools for addressing the climate and biodiversity crises.

The life-threatening impacts of the climate crisis are being felt in communities across the world – from severe drought and wildfires to devastating flooding and crop shortages. During her remarks, Secretary Haaland highlighted how identifying global solutions and incorporating Indigenous Knowledge are essential for protecting public health, safeguarding national security, and ensuring a livable planet for future generations to inherit.

A portion of her speech is below: Thank you, Ambassador Kennedy, for that kind introduction. And thank you to the Perth USAsia Centre for hosting today’s discussion that is so important for Australia, the United States, and the entire planet.

Hello, everyone! It is such an honor to be here with you today and thank you to those who are joining us online.

Before I begin, I would like to join Ambassador Kennedy in acknowledging the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation as the Traditional Custodians of the lands we stand on today.

Guw’aadzi haupa. My name is Deb Haaland, and I serve as the 54th Secretary of the United States Department of the Interior under President Joe Biden. I am so proud to be here in Western Australia as the first Cabinet Secretary to visit in over a decade.

We all have lived experiences that we bring into this work. For me, some core perspectives are that I nurtured my child as a single mom; I’m a public servant, a marathon runner, and I was raised in a military family.

My dad was a third generation Norwegian-American, and my mother’s family can trace its heritage back 35 generations in the U.S. state of New Mexico. I’m a proud member of the Pueblo of Laguna, an Indigenous community that has called the Southwest United States home for millennia.

I am so thrilled to be here in Perth and visiting this beautiful country. Like many Indigenous communities around the world, much of my identity reflects the land my people come from.

Over millennia, my ancestors used traditional knowledge and practices that were passed down through generations of people who learned to survive and thrive in the high desert landscape. They migrated to the Rio Grande Valley in the late 1200s, which makes my 35th generation distinction a proud part of my biography.

My ancestors used their knowledge to manage and escape drought, to feed their families, to care for the earth, and to coexist with the land, water, and wildlife that sustained them.

I think it’s fair to say that, even to this day, no one knows my homelands better than its original stewards and their descendants.

As a child, I was lucky to have some of this wisdom shared with me. Living in Mesita – a small village on the Pueblo of Laguna – I spent many days with my grandfather as we tended our cornfield. While we hoed weeds and picked worms off of each ear of corn, he would tell me the history and stories of the land.

He taught me how the rain and snow that coated the mountains fed our river, which fed our cornfield, and, in turn – fed us. In that cornfield, he taught me how our actions are connected to the land, and the land to every single person.

Like my grandfather, my dad made sure my siblings and I experienced nature as much as possible. Whether it was a hike through a rolling mountain range or a walk across a sandy beach, I constantly saw the beauty of this earth and the countless reasons why we must protect it.

These lessons continue to inform the work I do at the Department. They taught me that our relationship with nature must be reciprocal, and that the land and its offerings are gifts we must never take for granted.

As Secretary of the Interior, I lead the federal agency tasked with – in many ways – stewarding the United States’ direct relationship with the earth.

The Department oversees 480 million acres of U.S. public lands, which is over two thirds the size of Western Australia. Along with federal waters, the Department oversees the energy development, conservation, and wildlife management policies that impact these vast and irreplaceable spaces.

Additionally, we uphold what we refer to as the federal government’s nation-to-nation relationship and treaty responsibilities with 574 sovereign Tribal Nations – the equivalent of First Nations here in Australia.

At one point in time, the Department I now lead was tasked with either exterminating or assimilating Indigenous people like me – a painful history that our two countries intimately share. I am the first Cabinet Secretary who brings the trauma of surviving federal assimilation policies to the decision-making table. As Secretary, I stand on the shoulders of those who came before me who survived those painful pages of our history so that I could be here today.

With so much responsibility for the health and well-being of the land and people, our Department is well-positioned to help address the greatest challenge of our lifetime: the climate crisis. But to do that, we must work across the globe to find collaborative solutions.

Intensifying wildfires, historic droughts, disastrous flooding and disappearing wildlife threaten the futures and national security of every country on earth.

Our countries are both experiencing the devastating impacts of a rapidly changing climate – and have already created a model of collaboration to meet the challenge head on.

The United States assisted during the Black Summer bush fires of 2019 and 2020 by sharing wildland firefighters to stop the blaze, just as Australia did during our 2018 fire season.

Thirteen times in our history, our countries have come together to help each other fight fires. We owe a great debt to those who put their lives on the line – and those who give the ultimate sacrifice – to protect our communities.

Today, both our countries are experiencing, or bracing, for yet another season of devastating wildfires. We cannot deny this new reality. Climate change is impacting us all, and it will require all of us – using every tool we have – to address it.

This means creating and strengthening partnerships to meet the moment together. Thankfully, our countries can be a model for international partnerships around the world. Our collaboration literally spans decades.

Our governments are working together to secure essential components of our clean energy future – from critical mineral data and mapping to offshore wind – that will strengthen important supply chains and support good paying jobs.

We’re advancing breakthrough industries like offshore wind development through scientific knowledge sharing that is informing essential regulatory frameworks.

As we address drought and water management concerns, we benefit from sharing experiences and information on many issues. From improving dam safety and drought resilience to assessing river basin supply, we can bolster our resilience to the impacts of the climate crisis.

Since entering office, President Biden has unleashed a historic all-of-government approach to building a clean energy future, uprooting and addressing environmental injustices, and responsibly conserving the lands and waters that sustain us.

We are doing this while ensuring marginalized and historically forgotten communities benefit from this effort. Many countries have established goals to address the climate crisis. Let’s all give Australia a hand for your passage of the 2022 Climate Change Bill that outlines greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets of 43 percent from 2005 levels by 2030 and net zero by 2050.

President Biden has also put forward an ambitious contribution under the Paris Agreement to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions between 50 and 52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. We know that nature is our ally in the fight against climate change. That’s why we’re investing in the restoration and conservation of public lands and waters to help meet our climate goals.

In the United States, we have centered this work in an initiative called “America the Beautiful” – a decade-long challenge to conserve, connect and restore 30 percent of our lands and waters by 2030 through voluntary and locally led conservation.

To help meet this goal, the United States is leveraging an essential – yet globally underutilized – tool to address our interlocking climate and biodiversity crises: Indigenous- led conservation and co-stewardship partnerships. I am here to tell you that not only is this work possible – it is necessary. And it’s already happening across the United States alongside dozens of sovereign Tribal Nations.

Through Indigenous-led conservation and co-stewardship initiatives, the United States is creating opportunities for the original stewards of our country’s lands and waters to participate in how they are managed.

What is critical here is that we are putting words into action. And the exciting part is that much of what we are doing can be replicated for a more equitable and climate-resilient future worldwide.

Last year, we announced the re-acquisition of 465 acres – or almost 190 hectares – at Fones Cliff, a sacred site on the east coast in Virginia, to the Rappahannock Tribe. I had the honor of celebrating this acquisition with Chief Anne Richardson – the Tribe’s leader – as we explored their ancestral homelands.

As we took a river boat tour together, the Chief explained to me the importance of this land to the Tribe, which was one of the first human encounters for European colonizers. While eagles soared overhead, she described how meaningful it will be for the Tribe to share their Indigenous Knowledge and storied history with our country. Her words were a testament to just how impactful our conservation work is for present and future generations.

Through the agreement, the Tribe will draw on its Indigenous Knowledge and practices to better manage the area’s habitat, which is a globally significant nesting location for resident and migratory bald eagles. The Tribe also plans to expand its river education program, which conveys traditional river knowledge and practices to young people and their surrounding communities. The results of this transformative approach to conservation are already being felt, and each of us stands to benefit.