Indigenous engagement to support resilience: A case study from Kamilaroi Country (NSW, Australia)

While there is an increasing recognition of the need to engage Indigenous perspectives to generate sustainable and resilient management and policy decisions, there remains a substantive gap between intent and implementation. There is an urgent need in Australia for robust approaches to engaging Indigenous knowledge to inform water management. Including Indigenous perspectives and actively engaging Indigenous people in water management is critical to generating resilient models of management and governance that provide sufficient certainty to manage Country. Over the past 2decades, Indigenous people have sought greater access to water entitlements and a shift to co-design of research, informed by Indigenous research methodologies and led by Indigenous scientists. The research presented here develops and applies a methodology derived from Indigenous (Kamilaroi) ways of knowing and being to engage with Kamilaroi people to inform water management. Kamilaroi storytelling (integrative narrative), qualitative analysis and Western epistemologies are combined as the basis for this research. A framework is proposed for engaging effectively with Kamilaroi people specifically but is also likely to be more generally applicable for Indigenous engagement in Australia and internationally. This methodology and framework provide a way forward in resilient water management and planning which incorporates Indigenous knowledge, values and perspectives.