SOUTHERN Highlands resident Virginia Falk was part of an international panel of water experts who gathered at the Garma Festival in the Northern Territory last month to exchange indigenous water knowledge and discuss trends in indigenous water rights and interests.

Indigenous representatives from Australia, Canada, the United States, Guatemala and New Zealand, among others, came together in Arnhem Land to discuss how indigenous people’s rights to water should be acknowledged and advanced in water property regimes and water management systems.

The forum was convened by the United Nations University - Institute of Advanced Studies Traditional Knowledge Initiative and the North Australian indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance (NAILSMA).

“What we were trying to develop was framing a reference for international indigenous rights and interests as a nexus to non-Aboriginal rights and interests, and protect the value of Aboriginal science and tradition knowledge within mainstream water management systems,” Miss Falk said.

“As a result of climate change, Australia and the rest of the world has had to review its water management systems, and the traditional, ancient knowledge that indigenous people share has become a commercial and non-commercial interest to world governments and corporate enterprise.”

Miss Falk said indigenous people in Australia have drawn on expert knowledge gathered over thousands of years and have a different perspective on water than non-indigenous people.

For the full story see the Southern Highland News, Friday, September 19