ISSUE #03
A C O N S TA N T
to country CONNECTION
11
WORDS PHOTOS
Emma Macdonald Adam McGrath and Tyson Powell
Tyson Powell is the Aboriginal Project Officer for Ginniderry’s Conservation Corridor —a job that allows him to care for the land that is also his spiritual home. At just 29 years of age, Tyson, has his dream job—helping manage the land which envelops the Ginninderry community along the Murrumbidgee River. A proud Wiradjuri/Ngunnawal man, Tyson joined the Ginninderry team two years ago and has had to find his voice as a member of The Ginninderry Conservation Trust —the body charged with protecting the cultural and environmental values in the Conservation Corridor for future generations. Tyson has a long-term vision to introduce Indigenous land management techniques to the ongoing restoration of an area that has a 100-year history of european farming. Meanwhile, riverbeds and running water are his happy place. For all of his life, Tyson has found himself drawn to water courses, spending much of his childhood visiting his mother’s mob in Cowra to enjoy the Kalari (or Lachlan) River, “where I would run around with the cousins and Dad (a Motuan man from Vabukori in Papua New Guinea) who would spend a lot of time taking us out bush exploring and swimming.”
Tyson's happy place is near water
