Chapter 2: Sustainable Indigenous Water Rights

This chapter draws upon the ongoing gaps and injustices in Western water policy and law, exploring its paucity in recognition of Indigenous Water rights. Exacerbated by National Water legislation and ongoing colonial racism, notions of ‘ownership’ of water resources that are licenced through the Crown represent a site where a paradigm shift is needed to dismiss the myth of aqua nullius and secure Aboriginal Water rights (Marshall, 2017). The Gunditjmara success in obtaining United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage listing of the Budj Bim eel traps and the Yarra River (Wilip-gin Birrarung murron) Protection Act (2017) are two examples that illustrate recognition of Aboriginal connections to water, but at the same time reveal weaknesses in Australian water policy. Sustainable Indigenous culture requires legal, social and cultural recognition and enactment of Aboriginal Water rights.