Overturning aqua nullius : securing Aboriginal water rights / Virginia Marshall.

Canberra, A.C.T. : Aboriginal Studies Press, 2017.

1st edition

87821

Native title (Australia)

Water rights -- Australia.

Water -- Law and legislation -- Australia.

Part A. The interconnected waterscape

Ch. 1. Introduction: the web of water rights

Ch. 2. 'We belong to water': Aboriginal identity and cultural authority

Ch. 3. Aboriginal property and Western values: concepts of ownership

Ch. 4. Health, wealth and water rights

Ch. 5. 'Little more than a sense of justice': Mabo and native title

Part B. Trading water: the disconnect in water values

Ch. 6. Polarised paradigms: Western and Aboriginal conceptions

Ch. 7. 'A fluid element': water in Australian policy

Ch. 8. The Murray-Darling Basin and the Commonwealth Water Act

Ch. 9. Water rights: for economic independence

Ch. 10. Aboriginal water values in Australian policy and law

Ch. 11. Human rights: incorporating Aboriginal water rights

Part C. A paradigm shift for Aboriginal water rights

Conclusion: securing Aboriginal water rights.

Aboriginal peoples in Australia have the oldest living cultures in the world. From 1788 the British colonisation of Australia marginalised Aboriginal communities from land and water resources and their traditional rights and interests. More recently, the national water reforms further disenfranchised Aboriginal communities from their property rights in water, continuing to embed severe disadvantage. Overturning aqua nullius aims to cultivate a new understanding of Aboriginal water rights and interests in the context of Aboriginal water concepts and water policy development in Australia. Drawing on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Marshall argues that the reservation of Aboriginal water rights needs to be prioritised above the water rights and interests of other groups. It is only then that we can sweep away the injustice of aqua nullius and provide the first Australians with full recognition and status of their water rights and interests. - Publisher's website.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

9781922059093

xviii, 309 p. ; 24 cm