Scientists from CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems in Darwin hosted a workshop to identify and protect Indigenous values in water resource management.
A workshop on Indigenous cultural values and water resource management was held in Darwin in 2006 with the aim of exploring what Indigenous managers of water resources in northern Australia could learn from other regions where water resources and river systems have already been more significantly modified and developed.
Participants included:
The workshop was organised by CSIRO’s Dr Sue Jackson, as part of a collaborative project with the Northern Land Council (NLC) addressing Indigenous cultural requirements in water allocation planning.
An issue of ecological and cultural importance
Northern Australia has the world’s most significant concentration of river catchments of high ecological integrity. These rivers also sustain a long-lived connection with Indigenous people and are intrinsically linked to their way of life.
River systems are linked to art and material culture, economic well-being, identity, environmental philosophy and heritage. Many Indigenous people continue to live on their land and engage in customary activities that rely heavily on access to and use of rivers and other water bodies.
Caring for country is part of Indigenous cultural responsibility, and Indigenous people are quick to notice changes in their country as a result of increased development pressure.
Acknowledging Indigenous interests in water management policy
Despite being major landowners (approximately 20 per cent of Australia is under native title) and making up a large proportion of the regional communities of northern Australia, Indigenous people have historically been marginalised from water resource management decisions.
Many Indigenous cultural traditions relating to water escape the attention of scientists and resource managers, who rely solely on measurable physical evidence.
However, Indigenous knowledge of ecological and environmental process can prove valuable in understanding environmental change and the effects of development pressures.
In the cases of the Ord River in Western Australia and the Daly River in the Northern Territory, water resource agencies have recently begun to consider Indigenous interests in their water allocation planning.
Sharing experience for a better future
This workshop represents the first step in a dialogue that Indigenous groups in northern Australia need to have with each other, and with other sectors of Australian society, in order to overcome the neglect of their interests from the national water reform agenda.
For the first time in the context of water management reforms, a number of Indigenous people came together to discuss common issues and progress regional priorities.
There was unanimous interest in continued collaboration across cultures, catchment boundaries and political jurisdictions. In particular, workshop participants were keen to share knowledge so northern communities could benefit from southern experiences in water resource management.
By learning from the results of previous developments, the Indigenous people of northern Australia are keen to manage water resources so that northern rivers and water places can continue to “provide for us properly”, as workshop participant Philip Goodman commented.
Full report of workshop
A report outlining the discussion and outcomes of the workshop is available for download in the attached documents section on the right of this page.
Read about Promoting Indigenous involvement in the National Water Initiative.
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