Northern Australian Indigenous Water Futures Forum

The North Australia Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance (NAILSMA) has been commissioned by the Northern Australia Land and Water Taskforce (the Taskforce) to convene a forum that brings together key Indigenous water experts from across the north of Australia to discuss their water interests and issues.

The meeting will be convened at Mary River Park in the Northern Territory on the 5th & 6th August. The North Australian Indigenous Water Experts Forum aims to provide an opportunity for experts in water to raise ideas for or concerns about economic development and opportunities; the potential impacts of developments in the north of Australia; and governance and institutional arrangements as they affect Indigenous community interests, aspirations and issues.

The workshops in the Forum will bring together Indigenous communities to discuss:

their social and cultural connections to water resources;
their economic development aspirations that are reliant on access to and development of locally or regionally significant water resources; and,
how they perceive current or proposed water resource management and governance arrangements (positive and negative impacts), and their ability to pursue their economic development aspirations.

By the end of the workshop, the Taskforce will have a better understanding of:

the complexity of the issue of water, development and Indigenous disadvantage;
Indigenous social, economic and cultural connections to water resources;
Indigenous views on the sustainability of their freshwater systems;
Indigenous visions for water, in terms of socio-cultural and political economy aspirations;
Indigenous water use, particularly for social, cultural and economic purposes;
Indigenous views on social, economic and cultural impacts of Indigenous loss of control of water management and use (historical and contemporary);
ideas of models or structures for best governance or management of country and its water resources from an Indigenous perspective;
the need to support indigenous leadership with respect to the development of the north;
the complexity of institutional roles and responsibilities; and,
the need for proper process regarding development of the north and the interconnectedness between land and people