Aboriginal Waterways Assessment program

Aboriginal Waterways Assessment — Part C Literature review 55
PART C
ecosystem, nor separate an ecosystem
from the cultural practices associated
with the social and economic life that
the ecosystem supports. Additionally,
the cultural practices of maintaining
and transmitting the knowledge to
keep an ecosystem and these cultural
practices this way remain within the
Indigenous knowledge system that
exists within a specific ecosystem.
While existing water planning tools
and practices may be unable to
understand or include this form of
heuristic knowledge, the literature
shows that Indigenous knowledge and
uses of river systems tend to converge
with western technical approaches to
ecosystem health.
In this context, assessment tools and
processes are more than tools of
observation and measurement, they
are also ‘boundary objects’ which
enable flows of understanding and coworking
arrangements across culturally
distinctive boundaries of knowledge.
There is evidence in the literature
that strengthening customary culture
that is still in direct relationship with
ecosystems also benefits ecosystem
viability. This has direct relevance
to issues such as biodiversity
conservation, water quality and
food security.
The intention of cultural assessment
of rivers and wetlands is to show the
direct link between riverine flows
and their relationship to Indigenous
peoples’ ability to live their lives
according to their customary and
contemporary cultural beliefs, values
and practices.
There are many additional benefits
associated with Indigenous cultural
assessments. These include arresting
the further erosion of Indigenous
knowledge, and significantly
improving non-Indigenous water
management and its outcomes for
both Indigenous and non-Indigenous
peoples’ interests. The way knowledge
of cultural assessments of rivers and
wetlands is used may have either (or
both) cultural and ecosystem benefits.
A brief analysis of the literature’s
account of the development of the
concept of cultural assessment of
rivers and wetlands is given in the
full body of the literature review,
recognising its origin with the
Traditional Owners of the Murray and
lower Darling River systems.
The analysis affirms the imperative
that, globally, Indigenous peoples’
forms of participation in cultural
assessment must be reflective of local
cultural beliefs, values and practices,
if Indigenous knowledge is to be
used in water planning and deliver
outcomes for Australian Traditional
Owner values and uses of water.
The review then provides an
indicative description of a Māori
Cultural Health Index strategy in use,
in the Kakaunui Catchment of the
South Island of New Zealand. It gives
an overview of the tool’s properties of
observation and measurement and the
approach used by Māori to deliver the
assessment strategy.
The review concludes with a
suggestion regarding the use of
‘breach of confidentiality’ clauses in
assessment contracts, to protect the
Intellectual Property of collectivelyowned
Aboriginal knowledges.