Indigenous Values and Water Resource Management: A Case Study from the Northern Territory

Abstract

Indigenous people have a significant stake in water resource management arising from customary socio-ecological relationships, in which water is a highly valued element or property, and also from customary and contemporary management practice. In many regions of Australia, Indigenous people are also significant landowners, with rights to aquatic, living resources. Whilst rivers and wetlands are now being recognised as legitimate ‘users’ of water, Indigenous interests in water-allocation processes, including their ecological knowledge, have tended to be neglected. In a small number of Australian catchments, incipient water allocation processes are now endeavouring to acknowledge and protect Indigenous ‘cultural values’ of water and water-dependent ecosystems. Where north Australian Indigenous values have been considered, there has been a tendency to assume that a surrogate environmental flow will address cultural requirements. This paper describes the nature of Indigenous values in a specific region of the Northern Territory undergoing intensive natural resource management planning. I argue that the subjective, intangible and highly distinct values underpinning Indigenous people's relationships to water do not easily translate into Western environmental management frameworks, which have a utilitarian focus, and are highly reliant on objectification, quantification (e.g. environmental flows) and monetary valuations as a basis for resource allocation, regulation and management.