Aqua Nullius: First Nations Water Rights in Australia

This book focuses on the concept of aqua nullius, the attempted application of the falsehood of terra nullius to water. The book highlights the voices of First Nations people interviewed from across Australia about their cultural relationships to water. This is a publication of over 20 interviews structured around four key themes: storytelling, water injustice, First Nations water management, and overturning aqua nullius.“This book is a body of water. In these pages lies a collection of words, printed on to paper, pooling together here like the confluence of a river. Each stream of vibration carrying meaning, from thoughts, to sounds, to shapes, arriving through their respective Country and the bodies, hearts, blood and mind of each custodian. Each speaker has held this knowledge in relationship to kin and community for thousands and thousands of years in an unbroken stream.

Books at Manic, 2026