Yoongoorrookoo

A tale of two rivers – Baaka and Martuwarra, Australia: Shared voices and art towards water justice

“…Voices of the Rivers: We conceptualise the Rivers, as part of Country, as living entities with agency, to which all of us owe an ethic of care. In referring to 'voices', we invite the reader to view the river systems as subjects (rather than objects) and to consider what water justice means from the perspective of the Rivers themselves (Country et al, 2015;RiverOfLife et al, 2021a) Water injustice: Both a process and a set of outcomes that fail to deliver water justice.…”

“…The First Laws of Martuwarra are ancient and are ‘shared as one society’ by Martuwarra First Nations through a common ‘songline’; stories that connect places of knowledge and that are embedded in Country (Neale and Kelly, 2020). First Law recognises the River as the Rainbow Serpent: a living ancestral being (RiverOfLife et al, 2020c, 2021a) from sea to the source. According to a Director of the Bunuba Gooniyandi Aboriginal Corporation, located in Martuwarra Country: ‘It is living water, and we survive from the river.…”

“…Baaka and Martuwarra are complex bio-physical and living systems that encompass much more than their rivers channels and floodplains and have immense social, cultural, economic and historical values (Barber and Woodward, 2018; RiverOfLife et al, 2020a). They hold special values for the First Nations who have cared for, and been cared by, the rivers since the beginning of time and who assert that the rivers have a right to life (Poelina et al, 2019) that is recognised through ‘ancestral personhood’, an emerging form of legal personhood (RiverOfLife et al, 2021a). In the words of Elder Jeannie Warbie: ‘Living water, this one.…”

“…The Nyikina is one of several First Nations who are connected to Martuwarra through First Law – the law of the land and living water systems (Poelina et al, 2019) – and have lived on and around Martuwarra for tens of thousands of years (Ross et al, 2016). To them, the Rainbow Serpent is Yoongoorrookoo who is a lawmaker and giver of rain and life (RiverOfLife et al, 2021a).…”

Reflecting on the Future of Human–Water Relationships

“…Some frame this imperative as a matter of survival, noting that without access to a safe and reliable water supply, human futures are impossible (Vörösmarty et al 2010). Lately, those arguing for a reconceptualization of legal and social approaches to water point to possible new ways of relating to water as something with its own life essence and agency (Martuwarra RiverOfLife et al 2021) rather than just a resource to be owned, used, or abused.…”