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Are you interested in Aboriginal value integration into water planning?

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Our summary today works with the article titled Integrating Aboriginal cultural values into water planning: a case study from New South Wales, Australia from 2019 by Bradley J. Moggridge, Lyndal Betterridge, and Ross M. Thompson, published in the Australasian Journal of Environmental Management. Since we are investigating the future of cities, I thought it would be interesting to see how Aboriginal cultural values can enhance water management. This article investigates New South Wales’ government’s Aboriginal Water Initiative and provides insights into engagement and consultation.

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Welcome to today’s What is The Future For Cities podcast and its Research episode; my name is Fanni, and today I will introduce a research paper by summarising it. The episode really is just a short summary of the original paper, and, in case it is interesting enough, I would encourage everyone to check out the whole paper. Stay tuned until because I will give you the 3 most important things and some questions which would be interesting to discuss.

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In recent decades there has been a trend in Australian natural resource management toward including Aboriginal values and perspectives. There have been notable achievements in integrating Aboriginal practices through application of fire as a management tool. Less progress has been made in incorporating Aboriginal perspectives into water management even though the need has been identified in academic literatures and government reviews.

While there has been widespread recognition of the need for Aboriginal engagement in water management, progress has been hindered by a poor understanding of what is required to achieve that engagement. The complexity around Aboriginal people’s cultural views on water is often poorly understood by water managers and planners. This article investigates the Aboriginal Water Initiative – AWI for short – which existed between 2012 and 2017. This initiative sought to engage Aboriginal people in water management. This article reflects on the AWI for general insights on engagement with Aboriginal values in water management and provides an appropriate model for such engagement.

Despite many legal context allowing and trying to involve Aboriginal people into water management and planning, these efforts lacked real progress. Thus, the New South Wales government created the Aboriginal Water Initiative to engage more effectively with Aboriginal rights and perspectives in water management. The AWI was a team-based administrative concept located within the planning team of the Office on Water. The AWI assisted government commitments to preparing water resource plans in consultation with Aboriginal nations. The AWI was established recognising that specific and targeted consultation was the most effective approach to engagement. The AWI had three primary functions:

1. To liaise with Aboriginal communities to obtain information on water-dependent cultural values for consideration in state water planning and licensing processes
2. To build and provide cultural capability to departmental staff in dealing with Aboriginal people on water-related matters, and
3. To provide the opportunity to build the capacity and water understanding of employed Aboriginal staff through training and employment opportunities.

AWI was collecting data that assisted in identifying important water-related environmental, social, cultural and economic opportunities and priorities for Aboriginal communities. The data was then translated into rules in water sharing planes, like buffer distances for licences for new water supply works, and flow requirements to protect species. For example, cultural values associated with a living scarred tree required protection of groundwater on which it depended.

Governmental restructuring and funding challenges meant the end of the AWI. Several factors influenced the dismantlement of the AWI. It was perceived as a high-cost activity due to the need for regional travel for face-to-face meetings for Aboriginal community people. There were considerable costs in developing the engagement materials. There was also philosophical opposition expressed by departmental leadership to the idea of a separate Aboriginal unit rather than having Aboriginal staff integrated into water planning units.

The AWI engagement model was adapted over time through ongoing team input and review. The team was considerate of the Aboriginal cultural roles, and the engagement had 7 stages:

1. Reconnecting communities and promoting the Aboriginal Water Initiative through culturally appropriate protocols.
2. Provide workshops for community run by Aboriginal Water Initiative staff
3. Follow-up with community
4. Negotiate an Information Use Agreement
5. Collect water-dependent values on country
6. Upload water-dependent cultural value information into database
7. Monitoring of relevant water plans

The AWI had three key outcomes throughout its operations. They were able to establish better understanding of Aboriginal water values and better-informed Aboriginal communities. Licencing practices were significantly and positively changed based on the engagement for allowing access to water for the communities, for example. The collected data in the database is a collation and sensitive application of cultural knowledge. Based on the operations, a set of key principles were developed as the basis for engagement, such as a well-articulate governance structure with a clear and transparent model for engagement and protocols.

Engagement with Aboriginal people in water management in Australia has been and remains challenging, in part because water management – its terminology, administrative structures and implementation context is complex. These challenges are not unique New South Wales or even Australia. Internationally there are major challenges relating to Indigenous engagement in water management issues. The AWI experience provides a set of approaches, experiences, protocols and principles for this engagement that can inform future initiatives in Australia and elsewhere.

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What was the most interesting part for you? What questions did arise for you? Do you have any follow up question? Let me know on Twitter at WTF4Cities or on the wtf4cities.com website where the transcripts and show notes are available! Additionally, I will highly appreciate if you consider subscribing to the podcast or on the website. I hope this was an interesting paper for you as well, and thanks for tuning in!

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Finally, as the most important things, I would like to highlight 3 aspects:

1. Water management, its terminology, administrative structures and implementation, is complex, and this is not unique to Australia.
2. Indigenous and Aboriginal involvement in water management can establish more culturally responsive and sustainable practices and trust.
3. The AWI experience provides a set of approaches, experiences, protocols and principles for this engagement that can inform future water management initiatives.

Additionally, it would be great to talk about the following questions:

1. How do your Aboriginal people think about water? – An Australian example will be expressed in the next interview with Michael Browne in episode 159I!
2. How do you engage with the Aboriginal community in your area and what do you think about their approaches to water?
3. How could you engage more with the Aboriginal understanding and values connected to water?

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