Indigenous Australians bring 'songlines' and cultural map to Canberra

After failed referendum, a 'life-or-death' plea to protect the Northern Territory's Roper River

Nikkei map 10. Roper River map delegation members, from left, Rosina Farrell, Naomi Wilfred, Linda Williams, Daphne Daniels, Roland Nundhirribal.jpg

Roper River map delegation members, from left, Rosina Farrell, Naomi Wilfred, Linda Williams, Daphne Daniels, Roland Nundhirribala and Clive Nunggarrgalu. (Photo by Geoff Hiscock)

GEOFF HISCOCK, Contributing writer

December 10, 2023 15:37 JST

CANBERRA -- The message is stark and to the point: If you take our water, you kill our culture. If you kill our culture, you kill our people.

Less than two months after a national referendum in Australia rebuffed proposals for a constitutionally enshrined advisory body to represent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, a group of Indigenous leaders from Australia's Northern Territory is seeking what its members regard as a life-or-death hearing in the national capital, Canberra.