A new state-of-the-art tube fishway technology called the
“Fishheart” has been launched
at Menindee Lakes, located on the Baaka-Darling River, New
South Wales.
The technology – part of the NSW
government’s Restoring the Darling-Baaka program
– will allow native fish to move past large barriers, such
as dams, weirs and regulators, when they need to. It’s
hoped this will help the fish reproduce and survive, and
reduce the risk of mass fish deaths in the Baaka.
At
the same time, meaningful policy reform and implementation
can’t be achieved without input from First Nations
communities. So how do we do this? One creative
collaboration on the Fishheart project suggests art may have
a big role to play.
Distressing images
Several
deeply distressing mass fish death events
have occurred in the river since 2018, with millions of
native fish, including golden perch, silver perch and Murray
cod, dying due to insufficient oxygen in the
water.
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These events are the outcome of compounding
challenges in managing the Murray-Darling Basin,
Australia’s largest inland
river system. The basin, which stretches from Southern
Queensland to South Australia, is a water source for some three
million people.
But the construction of
infrastructure such as dams, weirs and regulators has
profoundly disrupted the natural processes that once
sustained healthy river systems. This disruption has been
made worse by ineffective and conflict-ridden
governance.
The Baaka is a source of life and
wellbeing for numerous communities. It should be cared for
with the same urgency and coordination as a critically ill
patient. If too many doctors or nurses are involved without
a clear shared treatment plan, the patient suffers.
Likewise, when multiple agencies attempt to manage a sick
river, the system can break down.
So how can better
care be achieved? For Barkindji Elder David
Doyle the answer lies in doing it
together.
Seeking and listening to Aboriginal
community
Aboriginal peoples have been explaining the
importance of Australia’s inland rivers for generations.
The Aboriginal community at Menindee held protests about the
health of the Baaka two
years before the first mass fish deaths. Yet their
voices and cultural knowledges have not reconfigured river
policy.
A
report
by the NSW Office of the Chief Scientist and Engineer into
the March 2023 mass fish deaths on the Lower Baaka
identified the importance of including Aboriginal
cultural knowledges in strategies for fish species
regeneration and management.
However, according to
Barkindji Ngnukuu elder Barbara Quayle, the community’s
experience of “consultation” has been a tick-box
activity. She says there is no trust that cultural knowledges
or community perspectives will actually be listened
to.
The power of the arts
Traditional cultural
knowledges are often held and expressed through various
artforms, from story, to dance, to gallery arts. Within
rural and remote communities, the arts and art-making create
conditions that can help
people work together to address complex issues. In fact,
there’s a long history of
the arts being used to
address social conflict.
Can the Fishheart help
prevent fish kills? We don’t know. But the Barkindji
community’s artistic input in the project is enabling a
more integrated approach to finding out.
Elders and
community members have come together with regional arts
organisation, The Cad Factory, and the NSW Department of
Primary Industries and Regional Development’s Fisheries
branch, to design traditional knowledge-inspired art for the
Fishheart pipes.
The project has brough together
Barkindji Elders and community members, regional arts
workers, state department employees and members of the team
behind the Fishheart technology. Vic McEwan, Author provided
(no reuse)
This art was painted onto the pipes by
members of Barkindji community over the past month. Other
community art, including collaborations with the local
school, was also placed around the site.
Making the
art gave everyone involved the time, space and tools to
consider and discuss the project. We learned how the Fishheart technology is
inspired by the human
heart, with tubes resembling “veins” and
“arteries” that can take fish in and “pump” them
over barriers through a siphon effect, letting them
circulate throughout the river.
We discussed important
details on how this technology works, which includes using
artificial intelligence used to detect fish in the pipes and
collect real-time data and photos of the migration. We also
considered how we might further care for the river, by
potentially allowing the removal of invasive species, or
monitoring for diseases.
The project also provided
fisheries managers with the opportunity to hear community
concerns, such as whether the installation of fishways might
be perceived in ways associated with colonisation, or
eventually lead to fish removal from the
waterways.
Most importantly, seeing the pipes visually
transformed by Barkindji art connected the Fishheart to
place and Country. The art provides a tangible expression of
uninterrupted Barkindji custodianship for the river and the
species that depend on it.
With art, there is hope for
creating policy together – policy that might promote the
health of the river as a whole, rather than treating the
symptoms of the problem.
Disclosure
statement
Claire Hooker receives funding from the
NHMRC, MRFF, ARC, and University of Sydney. She is
affiliated with Arts Health Network
NSW/ACT.
Barbara Quayle is the Vice-president
of the Menindee Aboriginal Elders Council, sits on the
Barkindji Native Title Board and NSW Aboriginal Water
Strategy Board and is a founding guide of Barkindji cultural
immersion tour group, Wontanella Tours.
Dave
Doyle is a member of the Menindee Aboriginal Elders Council,
a previous member of the Barkindji Native Title Board, sits
on the NSW Aboriginal Water Strategy Board and is a founding
guide of Barkindji cultural immersion tour group, Wontanella
Tours.
Reakeeta Smallwood has received funding
from ARC and NHMRC, in partnership with University of
Sydney, University of Newcastle and University of New
England. These funding sources are not relevant to this
article or project.
Claire
Hooker, Senior Lecturer and Coordinator, Health
and Medical Humanities, University
of Sydney; Barbara
Quayle, Vice-president of the Menindee Aboriginal
Elders Council, Indigenous
Knowledge; Dave
Doyle, Barkindji/Malyangapa Indigenous Knowledge
holder, Indigenous
Knowledge, and Reakeeta
Smallwood, Senior Lecturer in Nursing, Indigenous
and Population health, University
of Sydney
This article is republished from
The
Conversation under a Creative Commons license.
Read the original
article.
