Drawing from Indigenous ontologies and practices to rethink European water policy

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to begin a discussion of how Indigenous ontologies and practices might be brought to bear on water policy and management in Europe. Such a discussion represents an ironic historical shift in the sense that these ontologies and practices have survived and continue to evolve in countries that have been characterized by European colonization (i.e., Australia, Canada, US, New Zealand, countries of Africa and South America, and not excluding the Sami people of northern Europe). Increasingly research and policy interest has been directed toward the inclusion of Indigenous knowledge and perspectives in water governance in some of these places, especially Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. Here, we ask whether they might be a source of inspiration for rethinking the water policy in Europe. We argue that certain elements of Indigenous water knowledge and practices can be drawn from to reform European water policy on the ontological premise that people are part of nature and based on establishing and nurturing moral and legal relationships between water and people based on principles of respect and reciprocity.