Northern Territory traditional owners have presented a 13-metre long painted map petition to the federal government appealing to protect their rivers and springs from new gas and cotton industry developments.
Key points:
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Traditional owners have appealed for a halt to water extraction for some industries
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The federal government has received a 13-metre map petition painting in Canberra
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The NT chief minister says water allocations for new industries will be science-based
The traditional owners from the Roper River region in the Northern Territory’s north-east have asked the Commonwealth to intervene to stop any more water being given out across the vast Roper River catchment, even though the Northern Territory government has remained adamant its allocation plans are sustainable.
Alawa traditional owner Naomi Wilfred said the songlines and dreaming tracks shown on the map across the Roper River catchment’s 20,000 square kilometres demonstrated the importance of its interconnected aquifers and sacred springs.
“This is our way of telling you guys: listen to us, listen to the rightful traditional owners,” she said.
“Water is life for us, we have to live on the land.”
Federal Assistant Indigenous Australians Minister and Northern Territory senator Malarndirri McCarthy was there to receive the map.
“I’m really proud to see you mob here. It was a courageous thing to do to come down and we stand strong with you,” Ms McCarthy said.
She said the Indigenous people of the NT want jobs and to escape poverty but shouldn’t have to compromise their songlines country to get them.
“They worry that it could be threatened, by cotton, by gas development. Water is life, we know that, and it is a key battleground for first nations people here,” she said.
Federal Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney said her government had listened.
“You say you haven’t been consulted about your scientific knowledge of saltwater and freshwater. The most powerful thing today, apart from the visual presentation, is your presence here in this place where decisions are made,” she said.
“And so it’s our job to listen to you and it’s certainly our job to take on board what you’re saying and our responsibility to you and your message here today.”
The traditional owners made a statement from all Roper region clans including the Alawa, Mangarrayi, and Marra calling for a halt to all further water extraction and surface water harvesting from their aquifers and flood plains.
They have also asked for mandatory consultation of Roper Indigenous communities on water policy.
“We are worrying about the water because we’re so connected to the land, and we’re hunting-and-gathering people, and water is precious,” Ngukurr traditional owner and Nunggubuyu woman Daphne Daniels said.
“You take water, people on the land will not survive.”
Ngukurr community leader and Nunggubuyu woman Linda Williams said she was concerned by seeing dry conditions already affecting rivers and springs.
“I hope the federal government listen to what we’re saying about our rivers, and I hope that they speak to the NT government about it, because there’s so much water that’s already been taken from it, and the impact that we have from the global warming, that not many of our rivers are running well,” she said.
“I hope by seeing this map and how concerned we are, and the songlines and dreaming trails and how our connection to the land is really important to us.
“So I hope they really do listen.”
The NT government is hoping more than 1,000 gas fracking wells will be built in the region, and that the cotton and horticulture industry will expand to 1,000 square kilometres.
Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said water allocations for the industries would be sustainable and won’t damage Indigenous sites.
“When it comes to water allocation the decision is based on science with an independent water controller, so there are number of mechanisms that have been strengthened under the Labor [Northern Territory] government to protect the environment and community,” she said.
The federal government has not made any commitment to intervene.
In response to the petition, the federal Climate Change Department said it was “aware of concerns that recent water planning and licensing decisions in the Northern Territory could threaten significant cultural and environmental assets that depend on water, including in the Roper River catchment”.
It added that “the Northern Territory government has primary responsibility for groundwater management [in the Northern Territory].”
Mangarrayi traditional owner Rosina Farrell is still hoping the map will have an impact.
“I’m just hoping they’ll listen to us and stop everything,” she said.
“If all the water is taken out we’ll be lost for survival because we mainly survive on our traditional cultural medicine and food.”
She said she isn’t reassured by the NT government’s promise its water allocations would not damage the environment.
“I don’t believe it, because we’re always monitoring stuff on the water, and there’s too much water being taken out,” she said.