Research project number NTU18 of the Innovations Research Program of Land & Water Australia.
"Anmatyerr Law underpins our culture. Our Law is about our ancestors, our country, and our Dreamings. Anmatyerr Law has never changed the way the white man's law changes. The Law tells us about skinship, how we look after each other and work together. Our Law is our system of government - you call it Customary Governance.
Our Law has always provided for the values we place on water. It is the rules for men, women and country. Anmatyerr Law is strong today, but it is invisible to other people. Australian Law should respect Anmatyerr Law so we can share responsibility for looking after water.
Skinship tells us who owns and manages country. Kwertengwerl (traditional manager or caretaker) and Merekartwey
(traditional owner) have different roles that ensure the right ways for managing kwaty (water) and mer (country) are followed. These senior leaders speak for us and we must listen."
Quote workshopped by Anmatyerr Tyerrty (people) and the Anmatyerr Water Project Team
Project Summary
Water is central to the law and culture of Aboriginal people in Central Australia.
In this project, Dr Naomi Rea and The Anmatyerr Water Project Team, made up of traditional owners and managers, developed ways of identifying, conveying and providing for Aboriginal cultural values in water plans (Anmatyerr is pronounced u-mutch-ere).
In the Ti Tree region of Central Australia, an opportunity arose for the Anmatyerr traditional owners and managers to have their cultural values provided for in the 2008 review of the Ti Tree Water Resource Strategy 2002.
The aim was not to record and convey the complex, inter-related, often sacred and gender-specific body of Anmatyerr law and knowledge, but to work together to distil the key elements of cultural values of water in ways that other people could make sense of. These key elements could then be translated into meaningful cultural water provisions and outcomes.
Cultural water provisions are the equivalent of water allocations to other water users and are the mechanism to protect cultural values of water. The five overarching ways to provide for these values were: Water Allocation; Use of Anmatyerr Names and Protocols; Access, Land Management and Co-existence; Livelihoods and Skills Exchange; and Governance and Participation.
The insight, approach and recommendations developed by this work have application for other Aboriginal groups, especially those living within systems of customary governance, and for governments engaged in water planning.
Report and Fact Sheet
Download or order Report» Provision for Cultural Values in Water Management: The Anmatyerr Story Report
Project Code | NTU 18 | Project Leaders | Dr Naomi Rea and The Anmatyerr Water Project Team |
Dates: Project completed in February 2008 |
Key Findings
1. The five overarching categories or key elements of cultural water values were: Law; Responsibilities and Protocols; Economies, Environment and Education; Recreation and Well Being; and History of People and Place: 
2. The five overarching ways to provide for these values were: Water Allocation; use of Anmatyerr Names and Protocols; Access, Land Management and Co-existence; Livelihoods and Skills Exchange; and Governance and Participation. 
The first provision, water allocation, consists of volumetric or percentage amounts of a) groundwater for future Anmatyerr enterprises from the water assessed as available for consumptive use, and b) surface water and groundwater to sustain cultural values of water places and water dependent assets from the non-consumptive pool (aka 'environmental and other public benefits' NWI 2004).
The remaining four non-volumetric provisions are compelling ways to protect and manage cultural water values:
Firstly, using and respecting Anmatyerr place names, language and protocols.
Secondly, utilising relationships with regional landholders and managers to work more closely on mutual goals through partner projects.
Thirdly, culturally based livelihoods that especially involve young people, intercultural capacity and cultural literacy.
Fourthly, the construction of new governance arrangements including a new Anmatyerr
organisation that supports equity between the two systems of Law.
3. These provisions meet the National Water Initiative aim for "incorporating Aboriginal
social, spiritual and customary objectives in water plans and strategies to achieve these
objectives" (NWC 2004).
4. Having Anmatyerr tyerrty (people) convey what is important and mechanisms or provisions to protect cultural water values is fundamental. However, cultural provisions will need managing just as water provisions to other users are managed in an ongoing way.
5. The project identified the criteria for, and key indicators of, successful training pathways to create remote Aboriginal livelihoods in water and resource management.
6. The project developed a model for the construction of culturally based livelihoods. The premise is that Anmatyerr tyerrty are best placed to work and speak for their culture and future when they are aware of the full situation regarding water and its values and uses, and have the necessary skills to participate in mutually created governance arrangements and culturally based livelihoods. |
Main RecommendationsThe overarching recommendations are for an Anmatyerr Water Agreement that encapsulates the ways by which cultural provisions can be delivered:
1) Arrangements for non-volumetric provisions (language, protocols, access and co-existence, livelihoods, reformed water governance);
2) A non-licensed volumetric surface water and groundwater allocation that will sustain water places and associated assets of cultural and environmental value; and
3) A licensed volumetric water allocation for Aboriginal enterprises within the assessed
sustainable resource for future economic use. |
Approach to the Project
The research followed the principles of Collaborative Indigenist Research, where Aboriginal people inform the direction and content of the research while their knowledge is considered equally valid alongside empirical research methodologies. |
For further information, please contact:
Social and Institutional Research Program
Land & Water Australia
GPO Box 2182, Canberra ACT 2601
Phone: (02) 6263 6000
Email: enquiries@lwa.gov.au
Website: www.sirp.gov.au |
