Water means everything

I am a Traditional Owner of the Terry Hie Hie lands of the Gomeroi nation, near Moree in north central New South Wales, on Tycannah Creek that is connected to the Gwydir River.

Water means everything to me.  Water is about life for us.  Water is central to how we interact with our cultural landscapes.

My grandfather, my father, my grandmother, and my mother have been my cultural teachers, as well as my dad’s sister – my Aunty Anna.  The tree that my grandfather was born under still stands at Terry Hie Hie.  My formative years, my classroom before going to school was the forests, the rivers and creeks, the cultural landscape.

My cultural connections, and my cultural responsibilities were instilled into me by my grandparents, and my father.  The sense of place, and the sense of belonging, to me, is profound.  It gives me my status in my family, and my clan, and my nation.

The river and water are central to our cultural way of life, our cultural lore. The rivers provided, long before my arrival on earth.

I can remember my grandfather teaching me that he was never allowed to go into the waterways or creeks—our arteries and veins as we called them— with any animal fat or body paint on him, for fear of upsetting the ecological cycle.  We were taught lessons around water quality, about being sustainable fisher people.  It was instilled in me at an early age, to only take enough for the meal.

For as long as I can remember, we lived near a river.  And the river sustained us.  It provided for us.

From a very young age, the rivers were everything to me.  Me and a few other mates and a couple of cousins would go out to my most favourite place on the river, the Gum Flat Reserve. We would be dropped off there with our canoes, and we’d camp.  On Sunday we’d make our way back to town by paddling the river.  We’d fish as we went for Murray cod, yellow-belly, Macquarie perch, and the eel-tailed catfish.

Nowadays, native fish populations are down to less than 10 per cent since colonisation.  And that is another reason why protecting the source— the resource—is so important to me.

Unfortunately, a lot of our cultural river sites have been impacted by large floods which have scoured the banks out.  Agriculture has also taken away a lot of our signposts, our trees, our markers: now sacred and scarred.

Sustainable water is ‘cultural water’

Aboriginal Australia recognises the need to take action to explore frameworks and methodologies that can be used to determine a volume of water that addresses the cultural needs of water dependant assets throughout Australia.

 

Since time immemorial the rivers, billabongs, the artesian basin, and groundwater has provided Aboriginal peoples with cultural, spiritual, physical, and economic nourishment.

Over millennia, Aboriginal peoples across Australia have sustainably managed their lands, waters, and natural resources for the health of their Countries and their peoples. They always understood the importance of water and its centrality to life. They cherish water.

Aboriginal Australians’ traditional ecological knowledge, like their stories, are passed down from generation to generation and continue up until this day.  This means they live in a symbiotic relationship with the land and water.  They use water, they live from water, they nurture water. They sustained water and continue to do so, where they can.

The dispossession of Aboriginal people, and then mismanagement of their lands and waters, means Aboriginal peoples have witnessed, with pain, the detrimental effects on the environment. This includes degradation of our waterways as Aboriginal culture, knowledge and understanding has been disregarded.

Only in recent decades has there been a move towards legal and moral recognition of ownership of the lands and waters occupied by the many peoples prior to colonisation of Australia. For example, the inclusion of Aboriginal Peoples’ values and perspectives in water management across the Murray-Darling Basin occurs through statutory mechanisms, tailored engagement processes, and mainstream community engagement activities.

Water is an essential element of Aboriginal peoples’ holistic view of Country and should not be considered or managed separately to land, people or knowledge.

The legal separation of land and water runs counter to the Aboriginal concept of Country and precluded the use of Native Title to protect cultural values associated with water or generate benefits from managing water.

Governments need to recognise the importance of ‘cultural flows’

‘Cultural flows’ has been a concept increasingly used by Aboriginal peoples in Australia over the last 22 years. It has meant Aboriginal peoples can engage on their own terms with governments’ systems of water planning and management.

The importance of recognising cultural flows in water planning and water resource management is essential. Historically, governments have failed to recognise the importance of environmental requirements, such as continued river flows, for river health. This has resulted in failures to adequately limit or regulate water-use.

Today, modern techniques of ‘integrated water resource management’ are increasingly supported by governments, scientists, and water users as they recognise the need to balance different water uses and provide an environmental minimum for sustainability.

Cultural flows must be incorporated into water management systems and responses to the degradation of our water resources. The inclusion of cultural flows in existing water planning frameworks, as a separate allocation for Aboriginal purposes, is one option for achieving this.                                                               

Cultural flows mean different things to different Aboriginal peoples. For some, it is about the importance of rivers experiencing periodic flooding, which flushes out poisons and sickness, reduces salinity, and restores river health. Others focus on the importance of making sure certain foods, medicines and resources are available for cultural business. For many, rivers are places for teaching, storytelling, art, and ceremony.

Specific sites on rivers are important for creation and cultural hero storytelling.  For example, a series of natural springs may represent portal holes for the Rainbow Serpent to move between the surface and underground. If these springs dry up as too much water is extracted, the story is lost. Our culture is lost.

Other specific sites are important for gaining resources such bush foods, medicines, tools, artefacts, and toys.  Men and women have their own sites for their own special business. These need to be protected.

We also have special sites for teaching. If there is no water, there is no sharing of knowledge.

Governments, Federal, State and Territories, must genuinely partner with Aboriginal people and communities across Australia, to develop and deliver economic development measures, to mitigate the socio-economic impacts of water sharing plans and management on the Aboriginal peoples and communities of NSW.

We need to protect our cultural water.