Sam Provost spent his youth in Tilba walking around Mount Gulaga, a sacred site for the Yuin people, developing his connection to country.
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After more than a decade away, he will return to Tilba next year to map his beloved mountain, now equipped with the support of his community and knowledge gained during his studies at the Australian National University.
It's an exciting prospect for the 29-year-old, who looks forward to combining Indigenous land management techniques with western science.
"I'll be walking the landscape with elders down there and using all of this new satellite imagery," Mr Provost said.
"We're going to create a map that more represents the way Indigenous people see the landscape and hopefully use that as a tool to push towards more inclusive management in the park, more Indigenous perspectives, but also looks at the biodiversity, the tourism and potential for development through tourism."
Mr Provost was one of more than 3200 people to graduate the ANU this week.
Vice chancellor Brian Schmidt paid tribute to his students.
"Today's graduations represent the culmination of many years hard work for our graduating students," he Schmidt said.
"They should rightly be very proud of their achievements and on behalf of the whole university, I offer my best wishes for the future."
Mr Provost graduated the ANU with a Bachelor of Science (Resource and Environmental Management) and will continue his studies with a research Masters.
He has spent this week mentoring 19 Indigenous year 10 and 11 students from throughout Australia at the Indigenous STEM Science Summer School.
"We're hoping we can open their eyes and say 'You can come to university if you want to'," Mr Provost said.