Risk assessment underpins decision making for vast aspects of society, and is at the core of Natural Resources Management (NRM) activities such as the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. Based on an International Standard, risk assessment approaches for NRM emerge from western concepts of nature that consider people as separate and superior to a perceived ‘nature,’ which in turn provides services to humans.
This western framework fails to engage with First Nations worldviews and aspirations that focus on reproduction and interconnected benefit, effectively excluding First Nations values and interests from core NRM decision making.
The challenges thrown up during the Millennium Drought have led to a strong collaboration between Ngarrindjeri and Universities and the SA Department for Environment and Water have centered the importance of the Ngarrindjeri Yannarumi that enables wellbeing assessments based on Ngarrindjeri principles and philosophies. UTS, DEW and the Ngarrindjeri Nation have partnered in a Goyder Institute for Water Research project that has translated and connected Ngarrindjeri Yannarumi assessments into water resource risk assessments. This work addresses a key Basin Plan policy gap for jurisdictions to consider First Nations cultural values in water resource risk assessment and may inform broader aspects of NRM.
The project articulates the points of connection between the two processes and has established a new guidelines to inform DEW’s water risk assessment to integrate First Nations values and interests. This aims to bring First Nations science into a just relationship with western science. The outcomes of this project may have application across all aspects of natural resources management improving the recognition of First Nations values and interests.