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Paper short abstract

Reflecting on ‘Nature-based solutions’ for flooding in Australia, this paper calls for greater respect of Indigenous Australian and other ontological notions of reciprocity and response-abilities to rivers to unsettle anthropocentric attitudes that risk repurposing nature to solve (some) human needs

Paper long abstract

In settler-colonial societies like Australia, the un/relatedness of nature of has long been a weaponised concept. From the use of the term terra nullius – (‘nobody’s land’ in Latin) as the foundational myth on which the British claimed control of an unceded continent, to more porous but equally problematic attitudes of aqua nullius (Marshall 2017, 2017) in contemporary times, Indigenous peoples’ relations to nature and natural entities have been dismissed, their knowledge decoupled and their Country misconstrued and contorted through legislative, infrastructural, industrial and other lenses. In the context of socionatural disasters, ‘green’ ‘Nature-based solutions’ are being increasing put forward as a method to mitigate extreme events like flooding. As afforestation, wetland restoration and ‘room’ for rivers and are revisited ideas to afford at-risk urban areas a ‘natural’ buffer from the nature’s extremes, we should resolve not to solve historical problems without first unsettling the very idea of nature as conveniently apart, rather than a part, of people. Reflecting on the empirical context of ‘Nature-based solutions’ for flooding in Australia, this paper calls for greater respect and consideration of Indigenous Australian and other ontological notions of reverence, reciprocity and response-abilities to rivers to unsettle anthropocentric attitudes that risk repurposing nature to – once more – serve and solve (some) human needs.