Current approaches to valuing nature within environmental and natural resource management are based on and limited by Eurocentric knowledge and experience of northern temperate nature. Methods based on separation and domination marginalise other ways of knowing nature and thinking about value. The aims of this paper are to unsettle current ways of thinking about water values; to decentre Eurocentric thinking about water management; and to present a different way of thinking about values associated with water, based on an empirical study of the Lake Eyre Basin in central Australia. The paper takes a multidisciplinary approach, drawing on multiple knowledges of Australian water, including indigenous, local settler, and scientific knowledge, and on lessons from Australian Aboriginal people and the academic discourse of Aboriginal Studies. In particular, it considers how a focus on variability—a concept emerging from the Australian landscape (rather than from northern temperate landscapes)—might foster different thinking about water and value. Variability takes as a starting point the diversity, change, and complexity of water and values, as opposed to separation and domination. This focus highlights two points currently marginalised in dominant practice of environmental valuation: that the variability of Australian water regimes is valued, and that values themselves are characterised by variability.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AgrawalA, 1995, “Dismantling the divide between indigenous and scientific knowledge”Development and Change26413–439
2.
Ah CheeD, 2002, “Kwatye: Indigenous people's connection with kwatye (water) in the Great Artesian Basin”Environment South Australia920–21
3.
AllonFSofoulisZ, 2006, “Everyday water: Cultures in transition”Australian Geographer3745–55
4.
AndersonK, 1995, “Culture and nature at the Adelaide Zoo: At the frontiers of ‘human’ geography”Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series20275–294
5.
BakkerK, 2003An Uncooperative Commodity: Privatizing Water in England and Wales (Oxford University Press, Oxford)
6.
BriggsJ, 2005, “The use of indigenous knowledge in development: Problems and challenges”Progress in Development Studies599–114
7.
BurgessJClarkJHarrisonC, 2000, “Culture, communication, and the information problem in contingent valuation surveys: A Case study of a Wildlife Enhancement Scheme”Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy18505–524
8.
ByrneDBrayshawHIrelandT, 2003, “Social significance: a discussion paper”, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, Research Unit, Cultural Heritage Division, Hurstville, NSW
9.
CastreeN, 2003, “Commodifying what nature?”Progress in Human Geography27273–297
10.
CostanzaRd'ArgeRde GrootRFarberSGrassoMHannonBLimburgKNaeemSO'NeillRParueloJRaskinRSuttonPvan den BeltM, 1997, “The value of the world's ecosystem services and natural capital”Nature387(6630) 253–260
11.
DailyGSoderqvistTAniyarSArrowKDasguptaPEhrlichPFolkeCJanssonAJanssonBKautskyNLevinSLubchencoJMalerKSimpsonDStarrettDTilmanDWalkerB, 2000, “The value of nature and the nature of value”Science289(5478) 395–396
12.
DavisD, 2007Resurrecting the Granary of Rome: Environmental History and French Colonial Expansion in North Africa (Ohio University Press and Swallow Press, Columbus, OH)
13.
FarberSCostanzaRWilsonM, 2002, “Economic and ecological concepts for valuing ecosystem services”Ecological Economics41375–392
14.
Fitz SimmonsM, 1989, “The matter of nature”Antipode21106–120
15.
GelderKJacobsJ M, 1998Uncanny Australia: Sacredness and Identity in a Postcolonial Nation (Melbourne University Press, Carlton South, VIC)
16.
GibbsL M, 2006, “Valuing water: Variability and the Lake Eyre Basin, central Australia”Australian Geographer3773–85
17.
GibbsL M, 2009a, “Just add water: Colonisation, water governance, and the Australian inland”Environment and Planning A412964–2983
18.
GibbsL M, 2009b, “Water places: Cultural, social and more-than-human geographies of nature”Scottish Geographical Journal125(3/4) 361–369, Special Issue: Centenary of Geography at Glasgow
19.
GiblettR, 1996Postmodern Wetlands: Culture, History, Ecology (Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh)
20.
GoodallH, 2002, “The river runs backwards”, in Words for Country: Landscape and Language in Australia Eds BonyhadyTGriffithsT (UNSW Press, Sydney) pp 30–51
21.
GregoryD, 2001, “(Post)Colonialism and the production of nature”, in Social Nature: Theory, Practice, and Politics Eds CastreeNBraunB (Blackwell, Malden, MA) pp 84–111
22.
HeadL, 2000Second Nature: The History and Implications of Australia as an Aboriginal Landscape (Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, NY)
23.
HeadLMuirP, 2007, “Changing cultures of water in eastern Australian backyard gardens”Social and Cultural Geography8889–905
24.
HercusL, 1989, “The status of women's cultural knowledge: Aboriginal society in north-east South Australia”, in Women, Rites and Sites: Aboriginal Women's Cultural Knowledge Ed. BrockP (Allen and Unwin, Sydney) pp 99–119
25.
HeynenNRobbinsP, 2005, “The neoliberalization of nature: Governance, privatization, enclosure and valuation”Capitalism Nature Socialism161–4
26.
HeynenNMcCarthyJPrudhamSRobbinsP, 2007Neoliberal Environments: False Promises and Unnatural Consequences (Routledge, London)
27.
HillmanM, 2006, “Situated justice in environmental decision-making: Lessons from river management in southeastern Australia”Geoforum37695–707
HowittRSuchet-PearsonS, 2003, “Ontological pluralism in contested cultural landscapes”, in Handbook of Cultural Geography Eds AndersonKDomoshMPileSThriftN (Sage, London) pp 557–569
30.
HowittRSuchet-PearsonS, 2006, “Rethinking the building blocks: Ontological pluralism and the idea of ‘management’”Geografiska Annaler, Series B: Human Geography88323–335
31.
InstoneL, 2004, “Situating nature: On doing cultural geographies of Australian nature”Australian Geographer35131–140
32.
JacksonS, 2004, “Preliminary report on Aboriginal perspectives on land-use and water management in the Daly River region, Northern Territory”, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Canberra
33.
JacksonS, 2006, “Compartmentalising culture: The articulation and consideration of Indigenous values in water resource management”Australian Geographer3719–31
34.
JacksonSStorrsMMorrisonJ, 2005, “Recognition of Aboriginal rights, interests and values in river research and management: Perspectives from northern Australia”Ecological Management and Restoration6105–110
35.
JohnsonJ TMurtonB, 2007, “Re/Placing native science: Indigenous voices in contemporary constructions of nature”Geographical Research45121–129
36.
KaluO U, 2001, “The sacred egg: Worldview, ecology, and development in West Africa”, in Indigenous Traditions and Ecology: The Interbeing of Cosmology and Community Ed. GrimJ A (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA) pp 225–248
37.
KingsfordR, 2000, “Protecting rivers in arid regions or pumping them dry?”Hydrobiologia4271–11
38.
KingsfordRBoultonAPuckridgeJ, 1998, “Challenges in managing dryland rivers crossing political boundaries: Lessons from Cooper Creek and the Paroo River, central Australia”Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems8361–378
39.
KingsfordRCurtinAPorterJ, 1999, “Water flows on Cooper Creek in arid Australia determine ‘boom’ and ‘bust’ periods for waterbirds”Biological Conservation88231–248
40.
KnightonANansonG, 1994, “Flow transmission along an arid zone anastomosing river, Cooper Creek, Australia”Hydrological Processes8137–154
41.
KnightonANansonG, 2002, “Inbank and overbank velocity conditions in an arid zone anastomosing river”Hydrological Processes161771–1791
42.
Lake Eyre Basin, 2002Lake Eyre Basin Ministerial Forum and Biennial ConferenceLake Eyre Basin Ministerial Forum Secretariat, Canberra
MacfarlaneI, 2005, “A water history of the western Simpson Desert, Australia”, in 23oS: Archaeology and Environmental History of the Southern Deserts Eds SmithMHesseP (National Museum of Australia Press, Canberra, ACT) pp 308–323
45.
McManusP, 2008, “Their grass is greener but ours is sweeter—thoroughbred breeding and water management in the Upper Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia”Geoforum391296–1307
MorganMStreleinLWeirJ, 2006, “Authority, knowledge and values: Indigenous Nations engagement in the management of natural resources in the Murray – Darling Basin”, in Settling with Indigenous People: Modern Treaty and Agreement-making Eds LangtonMMazelOPalmerLShainKTehanM (Federation Press, Annandale, NSW) pp 134–157
48.
NabhanG P, 1982The Desert Smells Like Rain: A Naturalist in Papago Indian Country (North Point Press, New York)
PowellJ M, 2000, “Snakes and cannons: Water management and the geographical imagination in Australia”, in Environmental History and Policy: Still Settling Australia Ed. DoversS (Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, VIC) pp 47–71
51.
PuckridgeJSheldonFWalkerKBoultonA, 1998, “Flow variability and the ecology of arid zone rivers”Marine and Freshwater Resources4955–72
52.
ReadP, 2000Belonging: Australians, Place and Aboriginal Ownership (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge)
53.
RobertsonM, 2004, “The neoliberalization of ecosystem services: Wetland mitigation banking and problems in environmental governance”Geoforum35361–373
54.
RoseD B, 1996Nourishing Terrains: Australian Aboriginal Views of Landscape and Wilderness (Australian Heritage Commission, Canberra, ACT)
55.
RoseD B, 1999, “Indigenous ecologies and an ethic of connection”, in Global Ethics and Environment Ed. LowN (Routledge, London) pp 175–187
56.
RoseD B, 2004, “Fresh water rights and biophilia: Indigenous Australian perspectives”Dialogue2335–43
SheldonFBoultonAPuckridgeJ, 2002, “Conservation value of variable connectivity: Aquatic invertebrate assemblages of channel and floodplain habitats of a central Australian arid-zone river, Cooper Creek”Biological Conservation10313–31
59.
SmithMHesseP, (Eds), 200523oS: Archaeology and Environmental History of the Southern Deserts (National Museum of Australia Press, Canberra, ACT)
60.
SouléM, 1985, “What is conservation biology?”BioScience35727–734
61.
SpashCVatnA, 2006, “Transferring environmental value estimates: Issues and alternatives”Ecological Economics60379–388
62.
StrangV, 2005, “Common senses: Water, sensory experience and the generation of meaning”Journal of Material Culture1092–120
ToussaintSSullivanPYuS, 2005, “Water ways in Aboriginal Australia: An interconnected analysis”Anthropological Forum1561–74
65.
UNESCO2006Water and Indigenous Peoples Eds BoelensRChibaMNakashimaD Knowledges of Nature 2 (UNESCO, Paris)
66.
WalkerKPuckridgeJBlanchS, 1997, “Irrigation development on Cooper Creek, central Australia: Prospects for a regulated economy in a boom-and-bust ecology”Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems763–73
67.
WaltersCHilbornR, 1978, “Ecological optimization and adaptive management”Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics9157–188
68.
WeirJ, 2007, “The traditional owner experience along the Murray River”, in Fresh Water: New Perspectives on Water in Australia Eds PotterEMackinnonAMcKenzieSMcKayJ (Melbourne University Press, Carlton, South VIC) pp 44–58
