Seeing Sea Country

The idea of the commons – or its tragedy – lies at the heart of many investigations into how to manage global marine and coastal areas. Dominant conceptualisations of the idea of commons – whether relating to unmanaged use or to its collaborative governance – nonetheless revolve around the idea of how to resolve tensions around (primarily extractive) natural resource use. As a form of commons, the marine and coastal estate remains under threat, and Indigenous forms of governance and custodianship play an increasingly important role. Via an analysis of three Sea Country programs in Australia, we argue that Indigenous approaches to coast and ocean spaces – ‘seeing Sea Country’ invite the opportunity to implement the practice of ‘commoning’ in meaningful ways. By ‘seeing Sea Country’, Indigenous custodianship of ocean and coastal domains is reasserted and valued to build towards cultures of conservation, custodianship and care.