The Senate inquiry into the Coorong and Lower Lakes is due to report this week, and one thing’s for sure: there aren’t many issues in Australia as complex and important as saving the Murray Darling. This is something we learned ourselves while researching this issue; we received so many emails from our members suggesting we “do something” about the Murray; but it took us many conversations with different stakeholders to formulate our policy asks. Luckily, the timing was great: we launched our campaign the same day as the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists released a major new report on the Murray crisis, and were able to draw on this report to make sure our policy asks are based on the latest science.

In other recent Murray campaign news, the Murray River Red Gums are in the national news today. The National Parks Association has accused the NSW government of illegally logging almost 20,000 hectares of Ramsar listed red river gum wetlands. You can read the story from The Australian here and find out more information from The Wilderness Society here and National Parks Association here.

GetUp received the following article regarding Indigenous aspects of the Murray-Darling situation, and with the permission of the Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations (MLDRIN) traditional owners, has decided to publish it here to educate our members about Indigenous perspectives on the Murray.

“There are some 30 autonomous Indigenous Nations within the Murray Darling Basin (MDB), all of whom maintain a connection to Country and have rights and responsibilities to care for Country.

Indigenous Traditional Owners are, and have been since time immemorial, connected and responsible for their lands and waters, and the peoples of each Indigenous Nation obtain and maintain their spiritual and cultural identity, life and livelihood from their lands and waters.

In addition, Traditional Owner groups each have responsibilities and obligations under their Indigenous Law/Lore and Custom to protect, conserve and maintain the environment and the ecosystems in their natural state to ensure the sustainability of the whole environment.

Approximately 70,000 Indigenous peoples live within the Murray Darling Basin, comprising almost 4% of the national Indigenous population.  However, Indigenous peoples in the Basin currently own less than 0.2% of land in the Basin, and have little or no access to water.

The Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations (MLDRIN) is a confederacy of ten Traditional Owner nations in the Lower Murray Darling Basin whose aim is to ‘come together to make collective decisions on our rivers in a respectful and holistic manner’. 

It includes the Wiradjuri, Yorta Yorta, Wamba Wamba, Mutthi Mutthi, Taungurung, Barapa Barapa, Wadi Wadi, Wergaia, Latje Latje and Ngarrindjeri Traditional Owner groups.

MLDRIN has been developing the concept of cultural water flows – which involves water entitlements that are legally and beneficially owned by the Indigenous Traditional Owners and are of a sufficient and adequate quantity and quality to improve the spiritual, cultural, environmental, social and economic conditions of Traditional Owners.

MLDRIN Traditional Owners also have a strong interest in River Red Gum forests, which contain many places of cultural significance such as burials, oven mounds, initiation sites, men’s and women’s places, ceremony grounds, meeting and gathering places.  Along the Murray River, Red Gum forests are particularly important for contemporary cultural practice both because they are accessible and because as islands of remnant vegetation they retain natural resources and features of the cultural landscape that have elsewhere been destroyed.

MLDRIN is seeking the following outcomes for the Murray Darling Basin:

1.    Sufficient water returned to the rivers as soon as possible, amounting to the 4,000 Gigalitres identified by scientists, to ensure a healthy river system.

2.    A share of water for Indigenous peoples to manage for cultural purposes, negotiated using informed consent and good faith processes

3.    A regional assessment of the River Red Gum forests, with proper informed consent processes and Aboriginal ownership/handback-leaseback of new reserve areas wherever sought by Traditional Owner nations”

GetUp will keep you updated on the progress of our Murray Darling campaign as we hear back from the Senate Inquiry.