The 2015 Riverprize has been awarded to a South Australian Indigenous organisation for its exemplary ecosystem management.

The Riverprize is Australia’s top award for effective and sustainable river basin management.

It was awarded to the Murray River’s Ngarrindjeri Yarluwar-Ruwe (Caring as Country) Program for its long-term commitment to integrated river basin management, including Aboriginal involvement, equitable government relationships and international partnerships.

Flinders University academics Professor Daryle Rigney and Associate Professor Steve Hemming were part of the team that accepted the award on behalf of the Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority (NRA).

The winners say stronger relationships between Indigenous organisations and governments are the key to better environmental outcomes for river systems in Australia and around the world.

The NRA took the prized in partnership with the SA Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources (DEWNR), as part of a collective that also includes Flinders University, Goyder Institute for Water Research, the Commonwealth Department of the Environment and the Australian Research Council.

“Stronger recognition and more respectful partnerships need to be established between non-Indigenous governments and Indigenous Nations to enable more effective river restoration programs,” Associate Professor Hemming said in a keynote address after accepting the award.

“The NRA’s approach is centred on agreement-making and building the Ngarrindjeri capacity to take responsibility for caring for Ngarrindjeri lands, waters and all living things.”

Dr Deborah Nias, Chair of the Riverprize judging panel and CEO of the Murray-Darling Wetlands Working Group, said the Authority has demonstrated the effectiveness of integrated river basin management, with its commitment to collaboration a clear factor in the judges’ decision.

“Their leadership in the management of their country provides us with inspiration and hope for the future of the Murray River,” Dr Nias said.

Flinders University has enjoyed a close working relationship with the Ngarrindjeri Nation for well over a decade, with Professor Rigney and Associate Professor Hemming working on many research and community development projects with the NRA, and even the development of the NRA itself.

Professor Rigney and Associate Professor Hemming were part of a Ngarrindjeri think tank that developed the ground-breaking Kungun Ngarrindjeri Yunnan Agreement strategy with the Alexandrina Council, an approach that led to a whole-of government agreement between the NRA and the SA Government in 2009.

That agreement paved the way to securing major funding from the Australian Government’s Department of Environment to support the developing Ngarrindjeri Yarluwar-Ruwe (Caring as Country) Program.

“The NRA has led the way in its partnership approach to bringing together Indigenous Nations, researchers, non-Indigenous communities and governments to tackle the challenge of preserving the health of the Murray-Darling Basin for the benefit of all Australians,” Professor Rigney said.