Restoring First Nations Water Governance for Everyone's Future, with Walbanga Woman Sheryl Hedges

Water policy often gets framed as engineering, compliance, and competing demands. Then Sheryl Hedges steps up at the Australian Water Association conference and resets the baseline: for First Nations people, water is not a resource, it’s a living being that carries memory, knowledge, and songlines. That single shift turns “allocation” into responsibility, and it turns river health into a measure of cultural, ecological, and economic life across generations. 

Sheryl is a Walbanga woman leading the First Nations Water Branch within Australia’s Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, and her keynote lands right in the hard numbers. First Nations people hold rights to around 40% of Australian land, yet control less than 0.2% of surface water entitlements in the Murray-Darling Basin. She names the structural roots of that gap, including the fiction of aqua nullius and the way water entitlements have been tied to land ownership and capital inside a multibillion-dollar water market. 

We walk through the Murray-Darling Basin Aboriginal Water Entitlements Program (AWEP), a $100 million initiative that is buying water entitlements while also building something more durable: governance that can hold and manage water over the long term, shaped through deep co-design with Basin nations. Sheryl explains why “ownership without governance is fragile”, what the “pace of trust” looks like in practice, and why embedding cultural flows and First Nations decision making is central to Australia’s water resilience, climate adaptation, and institutional integrity. 

If you want clearer thinking on First Nations water rights, water governance reform, and what real structural change requires from government, utilities, agriculture, finance, and allies, have a listen. Subscribe, share with a colleague, and leave a review so more people can find these conversations.

Chapter markers & transcript.

Recorded 25 February 2026.

Music:

Yellowstone Birds, by Yellowstone Sound Library (from Artlist).

The Tree Who Grew On Water, by Yoav Ilan (from Artlist).

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.

Transcript

Sheryl 0:04

For us, water is not a resource. Water is a living being. It carries memory. It carries song lines for us. It carries knowledge. The water in our rivers today is the same water our ancestors knew. The same water that shaped our ceremony. The same water that sustained country long before infrastructure, markets, or allocation plans. Water is life. And the quality of that water determines the quality of life for generations to come.

AJ 0:40

G'day, Anthony James here for The RegenNarration with the stories that are changing the story, enabling the regeneration of life on this ancient planet. Last week, in my conversation with Katie Ross, my co-conspirator in our recent Confluence River journey on the Murray Dungala, part of what we talked about was one extraordinary morning in Perth/B oorloo that kicked off Katie's time in Australia. It was at the Australian Water Association National Conference, which started with a dual keynote of sorts. Two of them, but more like two conjoining streams. It was so compelling. I really wanted you to be able to hear it, so I offered to share them here. This was the second time the conference had run with the theme Connected by Water, emphasizing a systemic and cross-sectoral approach with a transformative mandate. Katie's was one of the keynote streams, but the first, which we'll hear today, was by Sheryl Hedges. Sheryl's a Walbanga woman leading the First Nations Water Branch within Australia's Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. In that role, she's responsible for leading the Murray-Darling Basin Aboriginal Water Entitlements Program, steering the acquisition and allocation of $100 million in water entitlements to First Nations communities. It's the first initiative of its kind at scale in Australia, and it's not just achieving meaningful buybacks, but self-determining structural change. So vital in the context of what's being referred to as Aqua Nullius, which still sees less than 0.2 of a percent of water in the basin under First Nations control. Cheryl explains how that doesn't just matter for them, but for all of us. In this concise, powerful presentation. It includes some of her fascinating background in the police and the army too, though I only later found out she's an avid Sydney Swans Footy Club fan and a Eurovision song contest enthusiast. I do have a feeling she might have performed something for us too if she was here today. Mental note. Next time.

Connected By Water Worldview

A Career Built On Service

Two Fictions And Water Inequality

AWEP And Buying Entitlements

Trust Model And Shared Design

Reform Needs Pace Of Trust

Actions For Government And Industry

Water Justice And Closing Challenge

Sheryl 2:49

So whalawani, jumble. So that's um my way of saying uh hello to you. We don't have, in my Duraga language, we don't actually have a way of saying hello or goodbye. Um it's about the journey that you've taken. So we hope that you've had a really good journey here, and we will say when we depart to say, we hope you have a good journey home. And so it's a worldview that matters for us. It's not the greeting, it's about the journey that we take when we meet each other. Today we meet on the lands of the Wajak Nunya people, and I associate my acknowledgement of country to the previous six people who have acknowledged country as well. Being an Aboriginal woman, I also pay my respects to elders, past and present, and I pay my respects to any other Aboriginal Tyrsch Tride Islander person who's here today. I also like to give a shout out to our young people, some of whom have lost their cultural ways and identity, and I'm hoping to support them to come back into our cultural ways so that they can then be our elders and leaders of the future. I also want to point out that the photos that are used in my presentation today are from Wayne Quillian, and he's a proud Aboriginal man from Tasmania. So the theme of this conference is connected by water. And let's sit with that for a moment. Water connects sky to earth, upstream or downstream, rural to urban, industry to community, climate to country. It shapes our rainfall, the river flows, our drought and flood, and the future that we prepare together. Water underpins economic prosperity, it underpins our communities, it underpins environmental health. For First Nations people, water underpins identity, law, story, and obligation. For us, water is not a resource. Water is a living being. It carries memory, it carries song lines for us, it carries knowledge. The water in our rivers today is the same water our ancestors knew, the same water that shaped our ceremony, the same water that sustained country long before infrastructure, markets, or allocation plans. Water is life, and the quality of that water determines the quality of life for generations to come. So my own journey has not been linear. It has been more like a river system winding, sometimes turbulent, but always moving towards something and something larger. I initially began my working career in law enforcement and I served as a detective sergeant in the Australian Federal Police. I worked undercover, I led investigations, I worked joint operations with other police services. I served on the beat, picking up drunks, taking them to safety to make sure they weren't harming themselves or other. And I saw what happens when systems fail people. At the same time, I served as a captain in the Army Reserve. And through that process, leadership taught me about discipline, but more importantly, it taught me about service. Leadership is not about rank, it's about responsibility. Think about what you can do as leaders within the water arena. But around 21 years ago, I transitioned into the Australian Public Service. And over those two decades, I have worked across health, aged care environment, but I've really worked in water for 16 of those 21 years. And of those 16 years, I've been promoting better outcomes for First Nations people to have access, ownership, and management to water. So today, as I was introduced, I lead the First Nations Water Branch in the Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water. And it is here where my professional obligation and my cultural responsibilities intersect most powerfully. Because in water, justice and country meet. So first and foremost, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have never ceded our country. When I say country, I mean land, water, sky, and spirit. When Australia was colonized, it was done under Terranulius, the legal fiction of nobody's land. But there was another fiction, Aquinulus, and that idea that water belonged to no one as well. That fiction ignored our water governance systems, our customary law, our obligations to neighboring nations, our reciprocal responsibilities. And today, First Nations people hold rights to around 40% of Australian land through native totals and land rights. But we own and control less than 0.2% of surface water entitlements. Let's have that sink in a bit more, 0.2% of the water that's available. And I want to share an example of that, and that's about the Murray Darling Basin. With the water, multi-billion dollar water market, that's not accidental, that's a structural issue. But the good thing is that structures can be redesigned. So I want to now share with you an example of what's happening with the work that we're doing to redesign and change structure within the Murray Darling Basin. It is the largest agriculture-producing system in Australia. It crosses five states, it's a multi-billion dollar market, it's sustained towns, industry, and ecosystems, but also homes more than 50 First Nations communities and people. So for decades, ownership of water entitlements in the basin was linked to land ownership and financial capability and capital. And these are two main barriers that have systematically denied First Nations people in the basin. And that is why the Australian government established the $100 million Aboriginal Water Entitlements Programme, also known as AWEP. And so AWEP is not simply a purchasing program, it's about structural reform that we're looking to introduce and succeed with in the Murray-Darling Basin. So it exists to increase First Nations ownership of water legally, economically, and enduringly. And we have made tangible progress. And as of the 31st of January this year, we've exchanged 37 contracts. We've purchased 16.6 gigs of surface water, and we've expended about $60.5 million of water out of that original $100 million that we've got for the program. And outside the basin that may sound like a significant investment for a relatively modest volume of water, but for First Nations people, this represents the real first step. I'm going to use a pun here, a little drop in the water towards water justice. And this is the first time government commitments regarding water have translated into tangible, growing First Nation ownership at scale. This water is intended to deliver enduring cultural, environmental, and economic benefits. But purchasing water is only the beginning. Ownership without governance is fragile and it's meaningless. So to secure these benefits and protect the Commonwealth's investment as required, we are establishing an enduring structure to hold and manage these entitlements over the long term. But we also want to make sure that this enduring structure is self-determined and ultimately in the hands of Basin First Nations people. So government has not decided what that might look like and how it's rolled out. We have actually undertaken some really culturally appropriate and extensive shared design processes with Basin First Nations, and we've done that over the last two years. So this is not something that you do and come to an agreement in a three-month period. You have to take the time to do that. We remunerated First Nations people who shared their knowledge and experience with us. From this shared design process, a preferred model has been identified and is soon to be going up to the Minister for his consideration. And so the proposed model comprises of two linked elements. First, it is a First Nations-led special charitable trust to hold and manage the AWEP water entitlements on behalf of Basin First Nations people. And the second one is a legally binding agreement between the trustee and the Australian government to support establishment capacity building and long-term success. Ultimately, with the government transitioning out of that over time so that that self-determination is there, led by and decided by nations from the Murray-Darling Basin. So the proposed trust would provide an independent governance structure, and the government would recommend to formally recognise that trust in legislation. So this proposed approach is not symbolic inclusion. This is an institutional redesign. And it reflects the government taking a different approach, changing the way we do business. And this directly reflects priority reform three under the National Closing the Gap Agreement. We did not ask First Nations people to fit into existing structures, but rather sought to build a new structure together. And the proposed model did not emerge from a single workshop. We conducted three engagement phases. We travelled to more than 40 locations across the basin. We met face to face with around 320 people. We engaged nation by nation. We held gatherings. We ran webinars, and there was no predetermined blueprint on the outcome. In phase one, we asked things like what governance safeguards are required, what cultural authority must sit within the structure, how do we balance commercial acumen and cultural obligation? How do we ensure the intergenerational wealth can be built from this process? In phase two, proposed models were taken out and the information shared on them that we heard from phase one. And because co-design is not consultation, it is shared authorship. It aligns with the United Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People, particularly to the right to self-determination and the right to maintain and strengthen our own institutions. Phase three was the closed off the feedback loop in which the overarching proposal model was shared with basin nations and seeking final comments on any gaps or opportunities. So AWEF is not simply policy alignment, it is policy and action leading to structural change. So to the people in this room who are probably engineers, regulators, planners, financers, utilities, researchers, operators, investors, you understand the system. You understand interdependency, you understand risk. So let me emphasize this point. First Nations water reform is not a niche issue. It is central to the resilience of Australia's water future. Because healthy rivers support agriculture, healthy wetlands support biodiversity, healthy catchments support drinking water security. Healthy governance support investor confidence and healthy relationships support long-term stability. Water reform that excludes First Nations knowledge is incomplete reform. Water governance that excludes First Nations decision making is unstable governance. And I encourage each of you to approach your work through an intersectoral approach that includes First Nations voices and knowledge. I often talk about at the pace of trust. Trust cannot be rushed. Communities measure progress in generations. Governments measure progress in reporting cycles. When those rhythms clash, reform stalls. So the pace of trust means listening before designing, sharing decisions, not just seeking advice, closing feedback loops, staying beyond the announcement cycles. And sustainable outcomes emerge when relationships set the rhythm of deadlines and not those deadlines. This is why we took over two years to engage and share design the proposed enduring model under AWEB. If connected by water is to be more than a theme, it requires structural change. Integration means moving from consultation to shared decision making. Resourcing First Nations organizations for long-term governance, not short-term projects. Embedding cultural science alongside Western science, recognizing that cultural flows not as a symbolic category, but as legitimate water use. Ensuring legislation reflects contemporary science and cultural recognition. Changing how institutions do business because without that, none of the other form reforms can truly be met. So governments are navigating the Murray-Darling Basin Plan implementation and climate variability, environmental water delivery, market transparency and compliance, urban water security, closing the gap commitments. And across all of these, First Nations inclusion is not optional, it is foundational. Outcome 15, under the closing the gap, commits governments to increase First Nations watership and management of land and waters. And this requires jurisdictional targets. It also includes enabling reforms. It needs accountability. There is also a conversation we must have with financial institutions. Water entitlements are valued as economic assets. But how can we support better outcomes that support First Nations rights and access to water that sit outside that economic asset traditional view? How do we value cultural outcomes? How do we quantify intergenerational well-being? How do we account for spiritual obligations? If markets can price risk, they can price resilience. So First Nations water governance increases resilience. And that is not ideology, that is a systems logic. So what does this mean for you? If you are in government, change the way that you do business. Not just the outputs, but the process. If you are in utilities, embed cultural governance into operational decision making. If you are in agriculture, recognize the long-term productivity depends on healthy systems. If you are in finance, expand valuation frameworks beyond narrow asset recognition. If you are an ally, if you are an ally, step back so others can step forward. Nothing about us without us. Support self-determined water holding mechanisms. Support enduring governance models wherever they might be initiated. Support structural reform, not just project-based inclusion. But more importantly, for all of you who are here, understand that water justice is not about redistribution alone. It is about restoring balance. The unfinished business of water reform is justice for First Nations people. And this includes securing water rights, embedding governance, recognizing cultural flows, building capability, and restoring trust. If we get this right, we strengthen river health, we strengthen communities, we strengthen economic resilience, we strengthen climate adaptation, we strengthen the moral integrity of our institutions. Water connects us. Connection implies responsibility. The question is not whether we are connected by water, the question is whether we are willing to act like it. So country teaches balance, it teaches patience, it teaches accountability across generations. When our systems reflect those same principles, they become places that stewardship does not control. Water is life. The quality of that water, ecological, cultural, economic, will define the future we hand to our young people.

AJ 19:07

From the Australian Water Association conference in Perth, Boorloo in February. Next up, the conjoining stream that was Katie's PowerPack keynote. If you like what you hear, please become a paid subscriber on Patreon, or Substack if you'd like some writing with that. This podcast is made possible by listeners and readers, like new Substack subscriber, Jake Austin. Thanks, Jake. And thanks to you all for listening, sharing, and telling your friends and colleagues about it. The music you're hearing is Regeneration by Amelia Barden. My name's Anthony James. Thanks for listening.