Indigenous water knowledge and values in an Australasian context: Special issue of the Australasian Journal of Water Resources (AJWR)

An appreciation of Indigenous water values and knowledge is becoming ever more important when managing water resources across the Australasian region (Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea and some neighbouring Pacific Islands). The Australasian region is culturally diverse and includes people from Australian Indigenous, Melanesian and Polynesian cultural backgrounds. Indigenous knowledge has emerged over millennia of adaptation to natural climate regimes, agricultural, industrial and urban development and government policies. The region also includes a wide range of colonisation histories, democratic traditions and governance, which have contributed to a variety of ways in which Indigenous people have been engaged in water policy, governance and management. Access to water is not only managed by a diversity of mechanisms including Treaty and Settlements, Native Title and Land Rights but also includes situations where Indigenous people have been excluded from access to traditional water places, to water for sustenance and water as an economic resource.