Indigenous water rights and knowledge

“Although Indigenous efforts to secure the protection of urban wetland sites have sometimes been controversial, urban water utilities are increasingly seeking to acknowledge and engage with relevant Elders, and local Aboriginal water stories and cultures are becoming widely featured in public art and recognised in dual naming of rivers and other water sites.

Settler Australia is belatedly realising that not only does justice demand recognition of Indigenous water rights, but also that there is much to learn from Indigenous ways of relating to water, developed over generations of living with Country.”

Margaret Cook et al (2022) Cities in a Sunburnt Country: Water and the Making of Urban Australia Cambridge University Press p26

Image: ‘Water is Life’ by Elisa Jane Carmichael (Ngugi woman from Quandamooka Country), at South Bank. Credit: UAP.