Cultural Water for Cultural Economies

Abstract

Traditional Owners and First Nations assert that their rights to water, like rights to land, have never been ceded (Gilbert, 2015; Marshall, 2017). Nations continue to assert their inherent rights and responsibility to care for and manage Country. The ongoing processes of colonisation (invasion, to Traditional Owners and First Nations) deprives Aboriginal people of their enjoyment of their inherent rights to water (Echuca Declaration, 2010). In the Murray-Darling Basin portion of NSW, Aboriginal people own 0.2% of water access entitlements and water licences, despite being almost 10% of the population. Complete data has not yet been assembled in Victoria, but evidence suggests that the situ..