TY - JOUR
T1 - Indigenous research methodologies in water management
T2 - learning from Australia and New Zealand for application on Kamilaroi country
AU - Moggridge, Bradley J.
AU - Thompson, Ross M.
AU - Radoll, Peter
N1 - Funding Information:
The first author acknowledges the Kamilaroi ancestors that have gone before him and the Elders that sustain us now. His Kamilaroi understandings and connections to place are with Boobera Lagoon in Northwest NSW. Thanks to the Māori people and Iwi of Aotearoa (New Zealand)—Waikato Tainui, Te Arawa and Ngāi Tahu for their hospitality and willingness to share their knowledge and experiences in water management. Thanks also to the University of Canberra, Centre for Applied Water Science (CAWS) and the Murray Darling Basin Authority for financial support. The Australian Academy of Science Indigenous Travel Award supported the lead author’s travel to Aotearoa (New Zealand).
Funding Information:
The first author acknowledges the Kamilaroi ancestors that have gone before him and the Elders that sustain us now. His Kamilaroi understandings and connections to place are with Boobera Lagoon in Northwest NSW. Thanks to the Māori people and Iwi of Aotearoa (New Zealand)—Waikato Tainui, Te Arawa and Ngāi Tahu for their hospitality and willingness to share their knowledge and experiences in water management. Thanks also to the University of Canberra, Centre for Applied Water Science (CAWS) and the Murray Darling Basin Authority for financial support. The Australian Academy of Science Indigenous Travel Award supported the lead author’s travel to Aotearoa (New Zealand).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
PY - 2022/4/18
Y1 - 2022/4/18
N2 - Indigenous Research Methodologies (IRMs) for considering cultural values of water are a missing component of water and wetlands management in Australia. On this dry, flat and ancient continent Traditional Knowledge has been passed on from generation to generation for millennia. The profound knowledge of surface and groundwater has been critical to ensuring the survival of Indigenous peoples in the driest inhabited continent, through finding, re-finding and protecting water. Indigenous Research Methodologies can provide a basis for the exploration of this knowledge in a way that that is culturally appropriate, and which generates a culturally safe space for Indigenous researchers and communities. The development of IRMs has been and continues to be limited in Australia in the water context, primarily due to the lack of Indigenous water practitioners, with non-Indigenous researchers dominating the sector. The intention of the paper is to shift and decolonise the research paradigm from studying Indigenous peoples through non-Indigenous research methodologies, to partnering in developing methods appropriate to Indigenous knowledge systems. Indigenous Research Methodologies are rooted in Indigenous epistemologies and ontologies and represent a radical departure from more positivist forms of research (Wilson, Can J Native Educ 25:2, 2001). This allows the Indigenous researcher to derive the terms, questions, and priorities of what is being researched, how the community is engaged, and how the research is delivered. This paper provides an overview of Indigenous engagement in water management in Australia and Aotearoa (New Zealand), with reference to case studies. These more general models are used as the basis for developing an IRM appropriate to the Kamilaroi people in the Gwydir Wetlands of northern NSW, Australia.
AB - Indigenous Research Methodologies (IRMs) for considering cultural values of water are a missing component of water and wetlands management in Australia. On this dry, flat and ancient continent Traditional Knowledge has been passed on from generation to generation for millennia. The profound knowledge of surface and groundwater has been critical to ensuring the survival of Indigenous peoples in the driest inhabited continent, through finding, re-finding and protecting water. Indigenous Research Methodologies can provide a basis for the exploration of this knowledge in a way that that is culturally appropriate, and which generates a culturally safe space for Indigenous researchers and communities. The development of IRMs has been and continues to be limited in Australia in the water context, primarily due to the lack of Indigenous water practitioners, with non-Indigenous researchers dominating the sector. The intention of the paper is to shift and decolonise the research paradigm from studying Indigenous peoples through non-Indigenous research methodologies, to partnering in developing methods appropriate to Indigenous knowledge systems. Indigenous Research Methodologies are rooted in Indigenous epistemologies and ontologies and represent a radical departure from more positivist forms of research (Wilson, Can J Native Educ 25:2, 2001). This allows the Indigenous researcher to derive the terms, questions, and priorities of what is being researched, how the community is engaged, and how the research is delivered. This paper provides an overview of Indigenous engagement in water management in Australia and Aotearoa (New Zealand), with reference to case studies. These more general models are used as the basis for developing an IRM appropriate to the Kamilaroi people in the Gwydir Wetlands of northern NSW, Australia.
KW - Aotearoa
KW - Cultural values
KW - Indigenous research methodologies
KW - Kamilaroi
KW - Māori
KW - New Zealand
KW - Traditional knowledge
KW - Water
KW - Wetlands
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85128307451&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11273-022-09866-4
DO - 10.1007/s11273-022-09866-4
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85128307451
SN - 0923-4861
VL - 30
SP - 853
EP - 868
JO - Wetlands Ecology and Management
JF - Wetlands Ecology and Management
IS - 4
ER -