ABORIGINAL WATER INITIATIVE NEWSLETTER – ENGAGING ABORIGINAL COMMUNITIES IN WATER MANAGEMENT DECISIONS

Water YarningIssue 4 February 2015 In this issue Welcome by the AWI Team Leader ....................... 1

Welcome to SAWPC (North) .................................. 2

Welcome ACWF Bioregional Assessments ........... 2

AWI Staff Attend the 2014 International River Symposium ............................................................ 2

Aboriginal Cultural Awareness Training (ACAT) .... 3

Program Stage 1 Roll Out ...................................... 3

Team Leader’s Report ........................................... 3

The AWI team wishes to acknowledge the diverse Traditional People and countries across NSW and pay their deepest respect to the Elders past and present of NSW

Welcome by the AWI Team Leader

Happy New Year and welcome you all to our fourth edition of AWI newsletter Water Yarning. The Aboriginal Water Initiative Program remains focussed on developing our staff and providing effective regional engagement with Aboriginal communities in water. This is ensuring water dependant cultural values are considered by NSW water planning and management.

I was recently honoured to be offered the position of Team Leader AWI and accepted it in September 2014, as I never get tired of saying I lead the only dedicated Aboriginal water unit in Australia.

The AWI welcomed a new temporary recruit – Barry Williams, who started in the NOW Grafton Office on 3 November 2014 as the Aboriginal Community Water Facilitator – Bioregional Assessments. Barry is contracted until 30 June 2015, as mentioned in #3 the August edition of Water Yarning, Barry will introduce himself in the following pages.

The AWI has also recruited two ongoing Senior Aboriginal Water Planning Coordinators (SAWPC) for north Marcus Leslie (Kempsey, Marcus introduction in following pages) January 2015 and SAWPC south Lillian Moseley (Wollongong) December 2014.

The change in the AWI team meant Gavin Callaghan returned to DPI Fisheries, the AWI and NOW thanks Gavin for his work over the past 2 years and ongoing commitment to Aboriginal people and water.

NOW has advertised 2 new positions Aboriginal Community Water Facilitator (Basin Plan), contracted for up to four years, so keep your eyes out on: http://www.jobs.nsw.gov.au/ (Closing 19 February 2015) and other advertising avenues.

A significant milestone for AWI was the handover of the live Aboriginal Water Initiative System (AWIS) database in October 2014. The secure AWIS will be an important tool for reporting and managing/protecting our data.

The AWI and NOW have rolled out Aboriginal Cultural Awareness Training (ACAT) for all NSW Office of Water staff in October 2014. We have engaged Grant Sarra as the Trainer who has many years experience in Aboriginal Affairs. Seven ACAT sessions have been run to date with eleven more proposed in 2015.

I was offered the ‘International WaterCentre Leadership Scholarship’. This full scholarship is for a ‘water professional currently working on integrated water management projects in Australia’ for the 2015 IWC Water Leadership Program.

Bradley Moggridge

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Welcome to SAWPC (North) Marcus Leslie

Senior Aboriginal Water Planning Coordinator North

Commencing in January of 2015 Marcus Leslie is the latest member of the AWI team, and will be based in Kempsey as the Northern Senior Aboriginal Water Planning Coordinator.

Marcus is a Gomeroi man with his family hailing from North West NSW. Having studied at Deakin University, Marcus has completed a Graduate Diploma in Natural and Cultural Resource Management, and a Certificate IV in Government Investigations. Marcus has more than 10 years experience within the NSW public service, as well as several years within private industry in the regulatory and environment and heritage field.

Marcus is looking forward to working with the AWI team in continuing the positive outcomes achieved to date, and is keen to continue and assist with the ever merging process of adaptive management (Western science) and long standing objectives of Aboriginal traditional ecological knowledge.

Welcome ACWF Bioregional Assessments Barry Williams

Aboriginal Community Water Facilitator Bioregional Assessments

Barry is a Bundjalung man from Grafton, NSW. He has a Geography degree from the University of NSW, as well as a Graduate Certificate in Natural and Cultural Resource Management from Deakin University. He has a diverse professional background working in metropolitan, rural and remote locations across Australia. Barry has worked in community organisations, emergency services, the military, higher education and all levels of government. Barry has returned to live and work in Grafton and is very happy to be back on "Country".

AWI Staff Attend the 2014 International River Symposium Aboriginal Water Initiative team members Bradley Moggridge (Queanbeyan), Lillian Moseley (Kempsey) and Kara Talbot (Inverell) attended the International River Symposium 15-17 September 2014 in Canberra, ACT. The Symposium is coordinated by the International River Foundation (http://www.riverfoundation.org.au/) and is an excellent forum to promote such programs as the AWI to an International audience but also establish new networks for NSW.

The Theme – Rivers and Communities catered for a strong delegation of Indigenous presentations, with a keynote from Dr Gail Tipa from New Zealand who has expertise in Cultural Flows, Aboriginal stories from the Fitzroy region of Western Australia, Indigenous women’s water issues from Bangladesh, and a Indigenous water rights panel chaired by Tom Calma, which only focussed on the Murray Darling Basin.

L to R: Bradley Moggridge, Kara Talbot & Lillian Moseley

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Aboriginal Cultural Awareness Training (ACAT)

Program Stage 1 Roll Out Aboriginal Cultural Awareness Training (ACAT) program rolled out for all NSW Office of Water in October 2014. This interactive program is designed to increase the capacity of NSW Office of Water to effectively communicate and engage with NSW Aboriginal Traditional Custodian groups. The program works on the premise that in order to effectively communicate and engage with Aboriginal People it is vitally important to understand how the past affects the present.

Facilitator, Grant Sarra has a 33 year background and experience working in areas that deal exclusively with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community problems, issues and aspirations relevant to public and private sector projects across Australia. He is passionate about Change, Integrity, Dignity and Humility. Change the way we think, feel and behave toward each other to become better human beings but know what this means in the context of our personal Integrity, Dignity and Humility.

Upcoming sessions in February and March will be at Queanbeyan, Deniliquin, Tamworth and Parramatta.

Facilitator, Grant Sarra (facing camera) conducting ACAT session at Wollongbar

Team Leader’s Report

AWIS handover The Aboriginal Water Initiative System (AWIS) database is operational and was handed over to the AWI on the 22 October 2014 from Rakesh Kaul our database contactor. This event is a significant milestone for the AWI program, thanks to Amardeep Grewal who has project managed the process. The Team has begun inputting data and we will iron out any bugs with Rakesh and continue to develop the AWIS as an effective reporting tool for the AWI.

Workshops We are continuing to hold Aboriginal community consultation workshops being held as planned. AWI team is collecting Aboriginal Water dependant Cultural value for planning purposes.

Snowy Environmental Releases Sarah Dinning (Deputy Commissioner), Lyndal Betterridge (Manager RWP) and I attended the launch of Snowy Environmental Flows project 14 September 2014 in Jindabyne to support NOW’s Aboriginal Water Planner - Dianne Connolly.

The event coincided with the largest of this spring’s environmental water releases into the Snowy River, and the releases have been named in recognition of the Aboriginal people of the Snowy Mountains.

Fee Waiver of Specific Purpose Access Licences Fee waiver for new Specific Purpose Access Licences (SPAL) Aboriginal cultural specific is in force (waiver does not include water charges or infrastructure funds).

Please contact Lillian Moseley on 0459 840 781 or Marcus Leslie on 0467 764 639 for further information.

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Program communication & promotion • Posters advertising workshop schedule

distributed to key contacts prior to workshops. • Banners displayed at workshops, and

information sessions • AWI brochures distributed at workshops,

conferences, meetings and information sessions.

• Promotional mugs distributed at information sessions and workshops.

• Promotional shirts and travel bags for the team • Promotional travel mugs available • DVD and Our Water Our Country resource kit

has been distributed during scoping meetings and workshop

• AWI positively presented in the recent 2014 NWC Triennial Assessment, with a full page story on pg32, http://www.nwc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/37673/Part-1-accessible-PDF-for-web-NWC-Australias-water-blueprint_national-reform-assessment-2014.pdf

• AWI promoted in the - Indigenous Science Network Bulletin http://members.ozemail.com.au/~mmichie/network.html October 2014 (Volume 17, Number 5) ISSN 1449-2091 Editor: Michael Michie

• Team leader attended a National conference: B. Moggridge speaker at the 7th Annual Water Forum: Water and Values – La Trobe University Wodonga, 13 November 2014. http://www.latrobe.edu.au/cwpm/water-forum

AWI would like to thank Heather Campbell for her formatting expertise especially on AWI’s promotional material.

Contacts Bradley Moggridge AWI Team Leader ............................ 02 6229 7345

bradley.moggridge@dpi.nsw.gov.au

Water yarning is a newsletter from the Aboriginal Water Initiative at NSW DPI.

Editor: Amardeep Grewal amardeep.grewal@dpi.nsw.gov.au

ISSN 2203-0891 © State of New South Wales through the Department of Trade and Investment, Regional Infrastructure and Services, 2015. You may copy, distribute and otherwise freely deal with this publication for any purpose, provided that you attribute the NSW Department of Primary Industries as the owner.

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