Aboriginal Waterways Assessment program

Aboriginal Waterways Assessment — Part C Literature review 57
PART C
water were formally recognised in
Commonwealth legislation. Even so, the
recognition was only discretionary (Tan
& Jackson, 2013).
Hill and Williams (2009) reviewed
Aboriginal participation in water
through the National Heritage Trust,
to find that ‘improved Indigenous
engagement in natural resource
management was urgently required’
in order to achieve some parity
for Aboriginal socio-economic
development (pp. 161–2). The authors
went on to note that between 1996–
2005 Aboriginal participation was
limited to 3% of the Nation’s total
natural resource management budget,
in relationship to 20% recognition of
the Aboriginal Estate.
Finn and Jackson (2011) argue
for locating Aboriginal harvesting
at the centre of water planning
and management to overcome the
persistence of ad hoc approaches, not
only to benefit Aboriginal peoples but
also to sustain healthy ecosystems.
This approach is also consistent with
Māori engagement in natural resource
management, where harvesting brings
people and nature back into a twoway
relationship between people
and land, fundamental to a healthy
ecosystem and food security (Panelli &
Tipa, 2009).
While the matter of recognising and
including Aboriginal knowledge in
water management activities such as
assessment remain at the early stages
of development in Australia (Hoverman
& Ayre, 2012; Tan et al, 2012), two
transforming trends are clear:
• that Aboriginal participation
in water management is now
expected, not only as a social
value but because it significantly
improves water management
practices and outcomes with regard
to flow-ecology relationships
(Jackson et al, 2014; Maclean & the
Bana Yarralji Bubu Inc, 2015)
• substantial, practical advances
in progressing Aboriginal
participation in water management
activities must be made to
improve water management
practices and their outcomes. This
includes the capacity of outcomes
to reflect Traditional Owners’
values and uses (Griggs et al,
undated; Bark et al, 2015).
Recognising Traditional Owners’
expertise in water planning and
management
Aboriginal types of knowledge can
be distinctive from non-Aboriginal
knowledge. This is a matter that
requires consideration in the waterplanning
context:
‘Can the way in which non-
Aboriginal water managers and
participating groups tend to
categorise values into use and
non-use, for example, be amenable
to Indigenous world-views and
underlying values that see far less
division between land and water,
do not polarise humans and nature,
nor privilege the role of detached,
objective scientific knowledge and
constructions of nature?’ (Jackson,
2008, p. 884).
The 2014 review of the Water Act
2007 (Cth) recommends the use of
the ‘Akwe: Kon voluntary guidelines’
in advising water planners regarding
the participation of Aboriginal peoples
in water planning. These guidelines
originated in Canada, and recommend
the recognition and support of