Indigenous Partnerships

Indigenous partnerships

An Indigenous Partnerships Project was established in February 2006. This project recognises Indigenous people's spiritual and cultural connection to their country, and their aspirations to be actively involved in managing the environment.

Indigenous input will be provided into each of the icon site environmental management plans. Indigenous Working Groups will ensure that Indigenous involvement is undertaken in culturally appropriate ways.

Local Indigenous facilitators are planned to be employed at each of the icon sites to work with their communities. Over time these communities will produce "Use and Occupancy Maps" for each icon site. These maps can help identify and record the spiritual, cultural, environmental, social and economic interests of Indigenous people for each icon site. This approach focuses on Indigenous people's contemporary connections to the land in a way that can be directly related and considered in developing icon site management activities.

The maps can also be used as a basis for cultural heritage protection and management, and help monitor the impacts of The Living Murray. Use and occupancy mapping is sometimes referred to as the ‘geography of oral tradition’.

The Living Murray Indigenous Partnerships Project has been developed with support and input from the Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations (MLDRIN).

Background of The Living Murray Indigenous Partnerships Project

An Indigenous consultation process was conducted as part of The Living Murray to inform the Ministerial Council’s First Step decision, and formed the basis of the Indigenous Partnerships Project.

The process was designed by the Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations (MLDRIN) with the aim of identifying Indigenous community’s knowledge, values, aspirations, issues, information needs and concerns in relation to the achieving a healthy working river.

Indigenous responses were gathered through

• workshops with Traditional Owners/Indigenous Nations
• public forums to enable input from other Indigenous people and organisations.

A report titled Indigenous Response to the Living Murray Initiative (PDF 1.04MB) was produced from the consultation process in April 2003. A paper expanding on questions raised in this report was developed by AIATSIS, titled Indigenous Rights to Water in the Murray Darling Basin (PDF 1.26MB).

Also informing the process was a Scoping study on Indigenous involvement in natural resource management decision making and the integration of Indigenous cultural heritage considerations into relevant Murray-Darling Basin Commission programs.

Links to The Living Murray's Other Programs

• Water Recovery
• Water Application
• Environmental Works and Measures
• Communication and Community Consultation
• Indigenous Partnerships