Indigenous water governance within the National Environmental Science Program: the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Water Embassy.

<p dir="ltr">Through the Commonwealth Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water’s (DCCEEW) National Environmental Science Program (NESP), Monash Sustainable Development Institute’s (MSDI) water team (MSDI-water) conducts Indigenous water related research projects under the NESP Program IP1.02 Water Sensitive and Liveable Communities (including both Regional and Remote Communities and Aqua nullius project streams).

Considering the significance of water to First Nations peoples, as a living entity part of Country, we assert that any organisation working with, about, or for water should have First Nations peoples oversight and authority as a default governance arrangement. That is, organizations should respect First Nations peoples’ position of “nothing about us, without us”.</p><p dir="ltr">Our vision is to normalize First Nations water governance and self-determination in leading contemporary water science research, reflecting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP).