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Clarence River, New South Wales Far North Coast. Image at visitnsw.com |
Virginia Marshall, February 2017, Overturning Aqua Nullius: securing Aboriginal water rights, excerpt:
Water
landscapes hold meaning and purpose under Aboriginal laws. After thousands of
years, the spiritual relationship of being part of Country remains integral,
and despite the significant political and social change heaved upon the lives
of Aboriginal communities the sacredness of water shapes the identity and
values of Aboriginal peoples.
The
creation story that opens this chapter recognises the relationship of Nyikina
peoples to the river system, the land and the liyan (spirit) in its peoples and
all things on Nyikina Country. Nyikina peoples have a name for the river,
mardoowarra (the Fitzroy River), and yimardoowarra means Nyikina peoples
‘belong’ to the lower part of the mardoowarra. Underground water, which travels
through neighbouring Aboriginal land, creates a joint responsibility.
Aboriginal
water management, as discussed in a Northern Territory study of water values
and interests in the Katherine Region, represents a complex web
of relationships:
Every aspect of water as a phenomena
and physical resource as well as the hydro morphological features it creates is
represented and expressed in the languages of local Aboriginal cultures: mist,
clouds, rain, hail, seasonal patterns of precipitation, floods and floodwater,
river flows, rivers, creeks, waterholes, billabongs, springs, soaks,
groundwater and aquifers, and the oceans (saltwater).
The
inherent relationships of Aboriginal peoples with land and water are regulated
by traditional knowledge. For generations Aboriginal peoples have developed
significant water knowledge for resource use. Aboriginal water knowledge,
traditional sharing practices, climate and seasonal weather knowledge underpin
water use knowledge. Aboriginal customary water use cannot be decoupled from
the relationship with the environment and water resources because Aboriginal
water concepts are central to community and kinship relationships. Unlike
Western legal concepts, water cannot be separated from the land because
Aboriginal creation stories have laid the foundations for Aboriginal water
values.
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