Jess Weir
The Australian National University
Cultural flows: traditional owners talking water in the Murray Darling Basin
The ecological devastation of the Murray River and its tributaries has created a heightened awareness of different peoples interests in the rivers, and brought them into competing and aligning discourses. The traditional owners of this inland river country have mobilized their engagement in these water debates by forming an alliance called the Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations (MLDRIN). MLDRIN is representing the concerns of the traditional owners to water management bureaucracies. Within this intercultural dialogue, the MLDRIN delegates speak of a ‘cultural flow’, which is intended to translate their embedded relationship with the rivers.
This paper illustrates how the delegates speak about a cultural flow in a natural resource management framework which would otherwise separate nature and culture. The traditional owners seek more than being part of water debates, but to transform water management through the intercultural engagement. The difficulties encountered in this translation process reveal the different assumptions held about rivers. Moreover, the terms of this engagement are undeniable as the incorporated MLDRIN alliance moves from arguing for a cultural flow, to realising a cultural flow – through formally requesting a water allocation.
Biography
Jessica Weir is a PhD Candidate at the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies at The Australian National University, and a Research Fellow in the Native Title Research Unit at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. Jessica is a human geographer whose research focuses on ecological and social issues in Australia, and previously in south and south-east Asia. Jessica’s PhD thesis “Cultural flows: negotiating water with traditional owners from along the Murray River” is supported by a research agreement with MLDRIN. Jessica is co-author with Monica Morgan and Lisa Strelein of Indigenous Rights to Water in the Murray Darling Basin: In Support of the Indigenous Final Report to the Living Murray Initiative (2004) AIATSIS Research Discussion Paper, no 14. Jessica is also researching the challenges facing native title holder communities, and is working with Winda Mara on the “Gunditjmara Land Justice Story”.
Email: ntru@aiatsis.gov.au