Paper short abstract:

Drawing on fieldwork in Australia, this paper considers the Rainbow Serpent’s vital contemporary role in representing ‘living water’ and non-human agency, and in upholding the beliefs, values and interests of Aboriginal communities in contemporary debates about water governance and management.

Paper long abstract:

Rejecting nature-culture dualism, contemporary anthropology recognises the mutually constitutive processes that create shared human and non-human lifeworlds. Such theoretical progress owes much to disciplinary engagement with indigenous beliefs and values that have, for millennia, upheld ideas about indivisible worlds in which all living kinds occupy a shared ontological space. In such spaces non-human species and environments are approached respectfully, with expectations of reciprocity and partnership, rather than as mere resources to be exploited.

As many societies confront the global chaos caused by their anthropocentric prioritisation of human interests, anthropologists and indigenous communities are well placed to promote alternative models, in which the non-human domain is dealt with more equitably. The Australian Rainbow Serpent quintessentially embodies ideas about the generative and potentially punitive powers of water, as well as providing a way to articulate rising concerns about the unsustainable impacts of human activities on rivers and marine areas.

Drawing on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in Queensland, this paper considers the Rainbow Serpent’s central importance in providing long-term life support to indigenous beliefs and values, and its vital contemporary role in representing ‘living water’, non-human agency, and the interests (and identity) of indigenous communities in contemporary debates about water governance and management.