Aquatic Plastic Podcast #11

What if water is not a resource to manage—but a living relative to care for? In the latest episode of Aquatic Plastic, Dr. Kate Harriden, Research Fellow at Monash University, challenges everything we think we know about rivers, ownership and sustainability. Drawing on Indigenous knowledge systems and her own lived experience, she calls for a profound shift: from control to custodianship, from transactions to relationships.

A Freshwater Woman’s Journey

Dr. Harriden describes herself as a “freshwater woman” from the Wiradjuri Nation—known as the people of the three rivers. Her connection to water began in childhood, watching pollution flow into a creek near her home in Brisbane. That early experience sparked questions that would later shape her academic path in Indigenous water research.

Water Is Alive

For many First Nations communities, water is alive and inseparable from “Country”—a living system that connects land, waters, people, animals and ancestors.

In this worldview, humans are not owners of rivers but custodians with responsibilities. Decisions about water cannot be reduced to economic trade-offs. Instead, they must honour relationships across the whole ecosystem.

Rights of Rivers—Progress, but Not the Whole Story

Granting legal rights to rivers has gained international attention. But Dr. Harriden cautions that simply inserting rivers into Western legal systems does not automatically align with Indigenous philosophies.

Without meaningful Indigenous leadership and governance, such initiatives risk remaining symbolic rather than transformative.

Beyond “Integration”

Rather than trying to merge Indigenous and Western sciences into a single framework, Dr. Harriden suggests recognizing them as distinct systems with different foundations. Indigenous knowledge is relational, place-based and grounded in responsibility to future generations.

Practices like “yarning”—deep, trust-based dialogue—demonstrate that knowledge itself can be relational, not extractive.

A Call for Humility

The episode ultimately asks a simple but profound question: what changes if we see rivers as relatives instead of resources?

Dr. Harriden’s message is clear—real change requires humility, listening and a willingness to shift perspective. When we rethink our relationship with water, we open the door to healthier rivers and more just water governance worldwide.

Aquatic Plastic is brought to you by the Interreg Danube Region Programme, co-funded by the European Union. Operating within the world's most international river basin, the Aquatic Plastic Danube-Region Interreg project unites 33 organizations spanning 10 countries. Together, we are executing 19 pilot actions and developing 8 solutions aimed at preventing, reducing, and managing plastic pollution in the natural waterways of the Danube River Basin. How do we navigate through such diverse borders? Explore further by delving into our report, and begin following our journey on LinkedIn and other social media platforms.