As environmental lawyers, we know the extraordinary power of the law. The power to grant rights, justice and a legal voice. Or to silence and dispossess. We see the consequences of this every day in our work. That’s why we believe it’s an important time for EJA to...
Taking on land clearing in the NT
What are savannah woodlands and why do they need protection from bulldozers and big cotton? In February this year, EJA lawyers launched an important court case representing the Environment Centre of the Northern Territory to protect the world’s largest remaining...
Speak up for Aboriginal cultural heritage
Where the Murray River meets the Barmah Lakes in the south-east of this continent, you’ll find the largest river red gum forest in the world. This is Yorta Yorta country – cared for by traditional custodians since time immemorial. But recent actions by a pro-feral...
Water management and the emergence of treaty-making in Victoria
For a long time, Victorian Aboriginal communities have engaged in debates around water and advocated for their water rights. In this drought-prone state, crisscrossed by rivers and wetlands, water is hotly contested by irrigators, cities and ecologists. Unlike other...
The Victorian government’s First Nations water justice plan takes steps forward but has a glaring omission
For thousands of years Aboriginal peoples have understood and supported natural water regimes and their ecological importance. The imposition of the western legal system created numerous barriers to the ongoing custodial relationship with water and waterways. Across...
“This is why we need climate justice”: What led Jacob to the environment movement
My name is Jacob, the Aboriginal Engagement Officer at Environmental Justice Australia. I will be writing a series of blog posts throughout my time here as I aim to tell my story and also discuss some interesting topics in regard to my work and involvement in...
‘Nullius’: water, law and overcoming the colonial project
The following is a lecture given at Duke University in the United States by Senior Specialist Lawyer Dr Bruce Lindsay. The intersecting space of environmental law and First Nations’ justice in our country is part of a wider canvas which relates to structural and...
Complaint lodged in the Victorian Human Rights commission to stop brumby preservation group from racially vilifying Traditional Owners
Lawyers at Environmental Justice Australia have today lodged a complaint at the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission to stop a brumby preservation group from racially vilifying Monica Morgan, a senior member of the Yorta Yorta Nation. The Barmah...
Working to reverse ‘aqua nullius’ for First Nations people on the Murray River floodplain
For tens of thousands of years, First Nations people have cared for Country and depended on healthy and flowing rivers – rivers that lived and breathed according to natural cycles. Colonisation and decades of mismanagement and overextraction have left Australia’s...
In solidarity with Black Lives Matter
As an organisation advocating for a legal system with equality at its core, we are incredibly disappointed that our laws and the police who enforce them have failed First Nations communities. The lack of accountability for the 437 deaths in police custody must be...
First Nations group proposes changes to Australia’s water law
The Water Act is ‘substantially inconsistent’ with Australia’s commitments to international conventions, a Traditional Owner group has told the South Australian Royal Commission into the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. The Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations...
Uluru Statement from the Heart: a response from EJA
EJA's response to the landmark Uluru Statement from the Heart. On 26 May 2017 delegates representing First Nations from all over Australia concluded and published the Uluru Statement from the Heart. The Statement was the outcome of deliberations of more than 250...
Aboriginal water rights: Legal Analysis of submissions to Review of the Water Act
Rivers, wetlands, waterways, springs and estuaries play important and powerful roles in the ancient places and cultures of Australia. They are frequently central to creation stories and to Aboriginal law/lore. Not only was this knowledge and law profoundly affected by...