One researcher argues that in order to turn around environmental degradation in the Murray-Darling basin, we need to change how we think about the fundamental relationships between people and planet.

We just don’t all come from Adam and Eve. We come from the simple dirt that we walk upon. And out spirits, and our Baiame, our makers, it’s all interconnected there. And people don’t even show respect, you know, for that. If our river and environment is dying, then I believe that we as a people are also dying.

These are the words of Lee Joachim, an Indigenous man of the Yorta Yorta people from Barmah, Victoria. His is one of many voices telling a similar story – the Murray River is dying. It is this all too common and tragic imagery that Dr Jessica Weir came across time and again while researching for her PhD in the Fenner School of Environment and Society at ANU.

Read more about Dr Jessica Weir’s research in James Giggacher’s article in ANU News.