Message us (inc. if it's ok to share on the pod) 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. Support the show The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too). You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal. I hope to see you at an event too, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
