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...