Caring as Country: Towards an ontology of co‐becoming in natural resource management

Abstract This collaboratively written paper takes the reader on a journey to B awaka, in N orth E ast A rnhem L and, northern A ustralia, to explore how a Y olŋu ontology of co‐becoming can inform natural resource management ( NRM ) theory and practice. By focusing on the process of gathering and sharing miyapunu mapu (turtle eggs) and the foundational Y olŋu concept of wetj , we challenge NRM to take seriously Indigenous ways of knowing and becoming, and to attend to the vibrant, more‐than‐human relationality of our world. We discuss this relational cosmology, highlighting the importance of being aware and attentive, as well as the underlying ethical imperative of responsibility and obligation. We argue that as important as the concept of C aring for C ountry has been for NRM in A ustralia, it is critical that the human imperative to care for C ountry is balanced with a multi‐directional and beyond‐human understanding of the human– C ountry relationship. This requires engagement with the ways C ountry also cares and acknowledgement that humans are part of C ountry and not separate from it. We therefore propose a reframing, that we not only C are for C ountry but C are as C ountry. This has implications for understanding the ways that humans can and should relate to the environment as they exist together through co‐becoming.