Indigenous people in remote Australia demonstrate both resilience and vulnerability to climate change—resilience results from ability to draw on their Indigenous knowledge and experience of environmental change over millennia, while vulnerability results from socio-economic disadvantage, which in turn is linked to the history of colonisation. While a linked vulnerability-resilience framework has been developed that helps understand this context, little is known about the dynamics of these two influences, and how to ensure that resilience is strengthened and vulnerability overcome. The research presented here draws on articulation theory to provide insight into how Indigenous/nation-state articulation complexes continue to reinforce vulnerability, constraining the ability of Indigenous people to draw on their knowledge and experience to strengthen resilience. The historical development of these articulation complexes, and their influences on vulnerability and adaptation, is analysed in the context of central Australia since the arrival of European settlers. The research demonstrates, through a case study with the Lytentye Apurte Rangers in central Australia, how pathways of knowledge co-production and exchange, drawing together Indigenous knowledge with science, can enable path-generation and production of realistic adaptation plans and actions. People prioritised actions where flexible strategies can enable them to negotiate barriers imposed by the Indigenous/nation-state articulation complexes, rather than on the basis of perceived levels of risk. Ongoing pathways of knowledge co-production and exchange can support adaptations to climate change by remote land-attached communities; however removal of the constraints on local decision-making and action imposed by the articulation complexes is vital to long term effective adaptation.