I was disappointed at the services in our communities. The government doesn’t help or support those communities in what they want to do. Our people are living in a terrible situation, because there are no government services in our communities. And before our people could get clean drinking water, they were drinking stagnant water from out of the ponds – out of the waterholes.Ī couple of weeks ago, we had the fish kills in Brewarrina. So, we had to try and get a community filter put in. I was out there during the Christmas and New Year break. You’ve recently been to the NSW north western town of Brewarrina, which is one of those that’s been suffering most during the water crisis of the last few years. Our dream time stories, which are connected to our land, have become disconnected. A lot have heart disease or kidney disease. A lot of our people have mental health issues now. There’s diabetes and high blood pressure.Īnd it affects social life. There are sicknesses our people are suffering from, because of the food they eat. The water brings life to the plants – the bush tucker, the food. So, what happens is it starts to affect the food sources for our communities. And we used to get floods four or five times a year. ![]() That natural weather where we used to get rain every now and again. We’re not seeing that natural environment anymore. And the changes in the land are affecting our people. Over the last couple of years, a lot of our communities have been suffering because there was no water in the river. It’s getting to Brewarrina, and it will probably go down to Wilcannia. There’s a bit of water coming down the rivers as we speak. Bruce, how are the First Nations communities that have been living along the river system for tens of thousands of years coping? Firstly, you addressed the crowd at the People’s Climate Assembly in Canberra last week, and you mentioned that Aboriginal communities living along the Murray-Darling are being hit hardest by the destruction of the river system. Sydney Criminal Lawyers spoke to Bruce Shillingsworth about the devastating effect multiple crises are having upon First Nations communities and how Indigenous knowledge needs to play a prominent role going forward. He also launched the Waters for Rivers campaign in 2019, before going on to lead the Yaama Ngunna Baaka Corroboree Festival Bus Tour in north west NSW last September. Mr Shillingsworth features prominently in the documentary. It’s an “Australian-made exploration of the rules governing the Murray-Darling Basin and how they are destroying the environment causing extinction-level events, and displacing communities”. The When the River Runs Dry documentary is to screen around the nation. The institute has further documented that around 20 to 30 taxpayer-funded dams have recently been constructed along the Murray-Darling, which do nothing to “help drought-stricken towns, struggling small irrigators or the wider public”. This harvested water is being diverted into private dams. And a new licensing scheme is set to increase the sustainable diversion limit. The Australia Institute outlined in December that flood plain harvesting – or water hoarding – continues to take place in the Northern Basin in an “unmeasured and unregulated” manner. And while this does involve a lack of rain, it also includes a number of human caused factors that exacerbate this, such as water mismanagement, theft, privatisation and speculation. However, those out there on the land tell a different story. And recent years have seen this system completely dry up in the north west of the state, which hasn’t been seen before in living memory.Īn unprecedented drought is how it’s been described. Shillingsworth explains that around two-thirds of Aboriginal people living in NSW do so along the Murray-Darling river system. And the water activist made clear that “First Nations people are bearing the brunt of what’s happening to our environment”. Muruwari and Budjiti man Bruce Shillingsworth recently addressed the crowd at the People’s Climate Assembly rally out the front of Parliament House in Canberra. Whereas, Europeans have only been here for a couple of hundred years and in that time, there have been extreme changes to the environment. However, the voices of First Nations people – who have been facing the worst of these crises – haven’t been heard.įirst Nations peoples have been the custodians of the land and its waterways for tens of thousands of years. ![]() Many Australians who were still sceptical about changing climate lost their doubts as they witnessed the country burn in a manner not seen before. And then, of course, there’s the bushfires. It’s described the scope of the water crisis along the Murray-Darling. It’s been used to refer to the high temperatures. Unprecedented is a word that many have applied to the weather conditions this continent has faced over the 2019-20 summer season.
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