This post details Professor Anne Poelina’s appointment to the Murray Darling Authority (MDBA), independent Advisory Committee on Social, Economic and Environmental Sciences (ACSEES).

“… We are very excited to be strengthening our First Nations science advice this year with the appointment of Professor Anne Poelina to the MDBA’s independent Advisory Committee on Social, Economic and Environmental Sciences (ACSEES). MDBA Chair Sir Angus Houston said Professor Poelina’s appointment added a crucial dimension to ACSEES’ depth of expertise.”

“First Nation peoples’ knowledge and experience play an increasingly important role in the MDBA’s considerations of water management,” Sir Angus Houston said.

“Professor Poelina’s immense talent and insight will help to ensure the MDBA’s work maintains scientific rigour and considers the quadruple bottom line of economic, social, cultural and environmental knowledge.”

Professor Poelina is a Nyikina Warrwa woman from the Mardoowarra – the lower Fitzroy River in the Kimberley region. Over the past 30 years she has combined her passions for academia, community development, film-making and traditional ecological knowledge.

“I am very pleased to be contributing my perspective and understanding to such a vital and complex area as water management in the Murray–Darling Basin. Striving towards a sustainable river system is a shared endeavour and the advisory role of ACSEES is more important than ever,” Professor Poelina said.

Professor Poelina’s qualifications include doctorates in First Law and cultural determinants of Indigenous health and wellbeing. She also played a key role developing and implementing applied research projects that inform the ANU Crawford School of Public Policy’s Water Justice Hub, with a focus on Indigenous water valuation and resilient decision-making.

The 8 members of ACSEES together cover a breadth of water-related research and analysis, including economics, hydrology, climate, ecology, water governance and law, sociology, sustainable systems and First Nations knowledge.

The MDBA established ACSEES in 2012 as an advisory committee under Section 203 of the Water Act 2007.

Read more at the MDBA website.