February 2017 Non-fiction Lead Titles

Overturning aqua nullius: Securing Aboriginal water rights Virginia Marshall, foreword by Hon Michael Kirby

Overturning aqua nullius: Securing Aboriginal water rights
Virginia Marshall, foreword by Hon Michael Kirby


Paperback | Feb 2017 | Aboriginal Studies Press | 9781922059093 | 256pp | 230x155mm | GEN | AUD$39.95, NZD$47.99

Overturning aqua nullius aims to cultivate a new understanding of Aboriginal water rights and interests in the context of Aboriginal water concepts and water policy development in Australia.  In this award-winning work, Dr Marshall argues that Aboriginal water rights require legal recognition as property rights, and that water access and water infrastructure are integral to successful economic enterprise in Aboriginal communities. Aboriginal peoples' social, cultural and economic certainty rests on their right to control and manage customary water. Drawing on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Marshall argues that the reservation of Aboriginal water rights needs to be prioritised above the water rights and interests of other groups.