The urgency to convene the Roundtable was driven by the significant water injustices faced by First Nations people
The National First Nations’ Water Roundtable (Roundtable) was held on the Country and Waterways of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri (Kamberri) peoples, at ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ National University (ANU) in Canberra on 16-17 May 2023.  
The Roundtable was a joint initiative of the University’s First Nations Portfolio, the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation and the National Native Title Council. The co-conveners saw an urgent need to bring together First Nations peoples’ perspectives from across the country to examine and discuss the complex situation of First Nations water rights in Australia. 
This was in the context of current policy reforms, such as the renewal of the 2004 National Water Initiative (NWI) and the growing movement towards economic self-determination for Indigenous Australians.   
The urgency to convene the Roundtable was driven by the significant water injustices faced by First Nations people. While there is no public data available, the estimated volume of water First Nations access entitlements nationally was estimated less than 0.1% in 2010. This is in stark contrast to First Nation groups holding legal interests in more than 57% of Australia’s land mass. 
Diverse group
The Roundtable was attended by a diverse group of about 80 people with expertise on First Nations water rights, and their intersection with public policy and water management. They comprised representatives from 43 different organisations from across Australia.
Participants included First Nations representatives at the centre of managing their lands and waters, researchers with extensive experience collaborating with First Nations peoples, and government policy makers. Nearly two thirds of participants identified as First Nations but a greater number were representative of First Nations organisations.  
Speakers included ANU Vice Chancellor Professor Brian P. Schmidt AO and Federal Minister for the Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek.
The Roundtable was framed around three facilitated workshops - Where Are We Now; What Does ‘Good’ Look Like; How Do We Get There - to give attention to current policy settings; gaps and issues as they relate to securing First Nations self-determination; and practical solutions and strategies to enable appropriate institutional and policy frameworks.  Key outputs from the Roundtable include this Outcomes Report, which provides details of the Roundtable, and a Communique that was issued by the co-convenors at the end of the Roundtable and conveys a proposed process going forward.
Next steps
The consensus of the Roundtable was for a new approach to advance First Nations water rights and needs, and that First Nations leaders needed to act now. As evidenced from work in the Murray-Darling Basin and northern Australia, the approach must be led by First Nations, be nationally consistent with First Nations water rights, informed by evidence and international trends towards water justice for First Nations peoples, and facilitate equitable participation for them in the nation’s social, economic and environmental futures. 
Read the Roundtable report  (3.1 Mb, PDF).
