Recognition of indigenous water values in Australia's Northern Territory: current progress and ongoing challenges for social justice in water planning

Abstract

This paper details indigenous Australian water values and interests, highlights progress towards improved distributive outcomes from water planning and analyses the remaining challenges in meeting indigenous aspirations for cultural recognition. It describes the significance of water to indigenous people living in the Roper River area of Australia's Northern Territory, reports on innovations in water allocation planning processes aimed at accommodating that significance, and analyses the implications of this case study for water planning generally. We describe rich cultural and historical connections with water places, protocols governing human conduct towards water, custodial assertions regarding the need for “water for the country”, distinctive values relating to riparian vegetation, and claims of ownership and economic rights in contemporary water allocations. Current water planning objectives such as sustainable development, protection for groundwater-dependent ecosystems, and protection of indigenous values accord with contemporary indigenous perspectives in the Roper, and in a national first, the local water plan specifically proposes reserving a significant water allocation for commercial use by indigenous people. Yet that allocation is seen as unjust from a local perspective, and further analysis demonstrates a range of other limitations: the scale and boundedness of the demarcated plan area, the neglect of riparian vegetation management, insufficient resourcing of local indigenous capacity, mismatches in planning and local governance structures, and the broader question of whether a rationalist planning process can simultaneously advance indigenous claims for recognition, equity in distributions and parity in participation.

Keywords::

• customary water governance
• indigenous rights
• indigenous water values
• Roper River
• water justice
• water planning

Acknowledgements

We thank the indigenous and non-indigenous research participants in this study for their time and patience. The research was funded by the Water for a Healthy Country Flagship of the CSIRO and the Northern Australia Water Futures Assessment (NAWFA) and authorised through the NLC. We thank CSIRO, NAWFA, and NLC staff for their support. We thank multiple reviewers of this research and the journal's reviewers for their comments and accept responsibility for any remaining errors.

Notes

^1. At the time the research was conducted, Sue Jackson was employed with CSIRO's Division of Ecosystem Sciences.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sue Jackson

Sue Jackson is a geographer with 20 years' research experience in the social dimensions of natural resource management in Australia. Dr Jackson is a Principal Research Fellow at Griffith University's Australian Rivers Institute and is a member of the Research Executive of TRaCK – the Tropical Rivers and Coastal Knowledge Research Hub – which is a large multidisciplinary consortium operating throughout northern Australia. She has undertaken many research projects for indigenous communities, including social impact studies, and has authored over 90 scientific papers, book chapters, reports and conference papers.

Marcus Barber

Marcus Barber is an anthropologist with 15 years research experience in the environmental and social sciences. He works as research scientist with the CSIRO, the research agency of the Australian government, on natural resource management and indigenous rights projects in Northern Australia. He is the author or editor of more than 20 scientific papers, edited books, and reports.