The Queensland Indigenous Womens Ranger Network, which manages and protects the Great Barrier Reef, has won 1 million pounds ($1.8 million) in the Prince of Wales's Earthshot Prize.
Established in 2018, the network was designed to provide a forum for female rangers to share their experiences, ideas and information and has since trained more than 60 women.
Queensland Indigenous Womens Ranger Network managing director Larissa Hale said the network came together because there weren't enough Indigenous women in land and sea management.
"[It] was created to show other women that we can do this," she said.
"It is not just for the men, it is for all of us."
The network combines 60,000 years of Indigenous knowledge with new technology in their work, using drones to gather data.
Using this data, the network educates people about coral bleaching and dieback and works with the government and reef organisations to implement coral sanctuaries and regrowth projects.
The ground-breaking program won the Earthshot Prize award for the Revive Our Oceans category and was chosen from more than 1,000 nominations.
Earlier this month, Hale said the prize money would help expand the program.
"Winning this prize means we can grow the number of Indigenous women rangers, plus have 200 girls in an education program, inspiring the next generation of Indigenous rangers," she said.
"Beyond that, our ambition is to reach out to a network of countries around the world to build a global collective helping to repair the planet.
"This would create a global groundswell of First Nations female led conservation programs."
Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek said Indigenous rangers were "vital" to the Great Barrier Reef's protection.
"Currently only 20 per cent of Indigenous rangers in Queensland are women, my hope is this prize will help raise awareness of this vital work to grow the number of women rangers on the reef and beyond," she said.
Ms Hale, a Yuku Baja Muliku woman from Cape York, is quoted on the Earthshot Prize website.
"This place has always been our home, but today we risk losing it and the unique culture that has existed here for millennia," she said.
"Our women rangers network exists to protect our home and continue our traditions.
"We have made big first steps, but we have a long way still to go.
"Thank you to The Earthshot Prize, for supporting us."
While climate change is a threat, Ms Hale said it wasn't too late to act.
"We have the power to shift this if we stand up now, work together and take action," she said.
The winners were announced at a ceremony at the MGM Music Hall in the US city of Boston on Friday night, local time — which was early on Saturday morning here in Australia.
Ms Hale, who was watching a live stream of the awards ceremony in Cooktown, said winning was an "amazing experience".
"It was a lot of screaming and jumping and probably a lot of tears at the same time," she said.
The awards ceremony featured videos narrated by naturalist David Attenborough and Australia actor Cate Blanchett.
The other winners were:
- Protect and Restore Nature category: Kheyti — a "greenhouse-in-a-box" concept created to increase yields on small farms in India
- Clean Our Air category: Mukuru Clean Stoves — a female-founded startup that's providing cleaner-burning biomass stoves in Africa
- Build a Waste-Free World category: Notpla — A UK company making biodegradable packaging from seaweed
- Fix our Climate category: 44.01 — a technique for transforming atmospheric carbon into rock in Oman in the Middle East
It is the second year of the Earthshot Prize, which was created by Prince William and aims to encourage people to solve the world's environmental problems through "hope, optimism and urgency".
Prince William said the Earthshot Prize was inspired by former US president John F Kennedy's moonshot speech in 1962 that mobilised the US to put astronauts on the Moon.
He said that same sense of urgency and scale is needed now to protect the environment.
"In the same way the space effort six decades ago created jobs, boosted economies and provided hope, so too can the solutions borne of tonight's Earthshot Prize winners," Prince William said.
Prince and Princess of Wales in the US
Before the event, William met with US President Joe Biden after the two shook hands and spoke briefly in the cold near the water outside of the John F Kennedy Memorial Library and Museum.
Prince William also met Caroline Kennedy, the ambassador to Australia and the late president's daughter, toured the museum with her, and told her that her father was "the man who inspired our mission".
The Prince and Princess of Wales earlier attended a welcome on Wednesday at City Hall and then a Boston Celtics game before the royal couple spent much of Thursday hearing about the threats of climate change and solutions in the works.
ABC with wires
