Martuwarra Fitzroy River Watershed: One society, one river law

Abstract

The paper is an account of the work undertaken within ‘Martuwarra’, the Fitzroy River Watershed, in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. It is led by the sacred ancestral River, Martuwarra, who is given agency as a published author, and the creator of First Law, Warloongarriy Law. Poelina and Perdrisat come to this story through their lived experience as a Yi-Martuwarra marninil, Nyikina Warrwa Indigenous Australian women who belong to Martuwarra. McDuffie comes as a long-time non-Indigenous friend, family, filmmaker, who completed her doctoral research continuing her deep and enduring relationship with Nyikina people. Our work examines the colonial approaches still in use by government and industry, which are responsible for the ongoing injustices experienced by Indigenous Australians, our environment, and our non-human kin. It suggests implications for future research, education and policy, with a focus on watershed approaches, on moving from dis-ease towards health, through modelling economic and social well-being for the sustainability of the lifeways of everything and everyone around us. We see ourselves as ‘one society’ of planetary citizens, working to transform watersheds, globally, seeing cultural flows in all forms of living water as life, critical to sustain humanity within our common home, Mother Earth. We believe this can only be achieved by valuing the wisdom of Indigenous peoples, igniting our dialogic actions through an ethics of care, love, and peace.