Lore, law and water governance: insights into managing water for country, Australia

Abstract

Governance of water, always a vexed management issue, becomes very complicated when considering how to incorporate Indigenous interests. Indigenous and Western traditions of governance and leadership overlap and intersect in multiple ways that reveal the difference between rights, lore and the law. A key element of national water governance in Australia is the National Water Initiative (NWI) which was the first Commonwealth policy to try and incorporate Indigenous interests in relation to water. Subsequently, State and Federal governments have been trying to establish policy mechanisms for incorporating Indigenous values and interests in water allocation and other planning processes. Despite the aims of the NWI, Tan and Jackson argue that the NWI has four features that restrict an expression of Indigenous interests as articulated within the policy including: (i) the low priority given to Indigenous needs in over-allocated catchments; (ii) state government pressures, which result in a lack of clear guidance on balancing competing priorities; (iii) procrastination while awaiting Native Title determinations; and (iv) consultations that do not result in equitable access to valuable economic resource rights. This paper explores these issues through a case study of the Arabana people of the Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre region in Australia based on two research projects. One project investigated the development of a community based climate change adaptation strategy and the other the possibility of developing cultural indicators for assessment of river systems in the Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre region. Ultimately, both projects show that unless there is acknowledgement and incorporation of Indigenous world views, values and modes of governance into broader water management regimes that the contest between rights, lore and the law will remain.