For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the health of the Great Barrier Reef cannot be separated from the rivers, waterways and catchments flowing across Country.
What happens upstream eventually reaches the sea, carrying consequences for marine life, cultural practices and communities whose connections to those places stretch back more than 60,000 years.
A new $30 million program, across two phases, will place Traditional Owners at the centre of efforts to improve water quality across the Great Barrier Reef and its catchments.
Funded through the Australian Government's Reef Trust, the Traditional Owner-Led Water Quality Improvement Program aims to strengthen Indigenous stewardship while supporting practical, on-ground projects that deliver environmental, cultural and community benefits.
The North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance will work alongside Traditional Owners to undertake Phase One of the Program. For NAILSMA, the program is about ensuring Traditional Owners are recognised as leaders and decision-makers, rather than simply being consulted after decisions have already been made.
NAILSMA chief executive and Djabugay and Djirrabal Traditional Owner Barry Hunter said the organisation's role would focus on supporting the voices, knowledge and stewardship of the people responsible for Country.
"Amplifying Indigenous leadership and continuing to shift the dial in outcomes and influence is at the heart of this work," Mr Hunter said.
During the program's first phase, a Traditional Owner-Led Reef Water Quality Advisory Group will be established to help inform the design of its second phase.
That second phase will provide grants for projects intended to improve water quality, strengthen Traditional Owner-led stewardship and create benefits extending beyond environmental outcomes.
A separate Traditional Owner-Led Reef Water Quality Working Group will also be established to support the program, strengthen capacity and increase participation in water quality improvement.
Together, the two groups will provide avenues for Traditional Owners to influence both the shape of the funding program and the work undertaken on Country.
The structure acknowledges that effective environmental management depends not only on investment, but on who determines priorities, whose knowledge informs decisions and whether communities have the opportunity to lead.
NAILSMA director of policy and development Dr Cass Hunter, a Kuku Yalanji and Maluligal Traditional Owner, said the initiative would centre Indigenous-led solutions.
"The program and its phases support pathways for continuing the success stories of Traditional Owners restoring Country and the important flows across land, water and sea," Dr Hunter said.
Her comments reflect an understanding of Country as an interconnected system, where the wellbeing of waterways, coastal ecosystems and the Reef cannot be considered separately.
Across the Great Barrier Reef, its many catchments connect landscapes, rivers, wetlands, mangroves, seagrass habitats and marine environments.
Poor water quality remains one of the major pressures facing the Reef, alongside climate change, marine debris and crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks.
For Traditional Owners, protecting these environments also means protecting cultural responsibilities, knowledge systems and relationships maintained across generations.
The program creates an opportunity to bring those responsibilities into the centre of water quality planning and funding, rather than treating Indigenous participation as an additional component of projects designed elsewhere.
It also recognises the existing work of Traditional Owners restoring and caring for Country, with the government indicating the initiative will draw on Traditional Knowledge and build on outcomes achieved through the Reef Trust Partnership.
The first phase will be critical in shaping how Traditional Owner directions and learnings are reflected in the grants that follow.
The advisory group will help inform the program's design, while the working group will support participation and capacity-building initiatives.
For communities, this could create stronger pathways to influence decisions about waterways and catchments within their own estates, supported by resources for practical environmental work.
The significance of the initiative extends beyond improving the condition of the Reef.
Traditional Owner-led stewardship also supports the continuation of cultural knowledge and stronger connections between community members and Country.
It creates opportunities for environmental programs to reflect local priorities and recognise that caring for Country is inseparable from caring for people, culture and future generations.
The challenge with improving water quality across the Great Barrier Reef is ensuring this program and other reef-wide programs translate Indigenous leadership into genuine influence around management and delivery.
For NAILSMA, that begins with standing alongside Traditional Owners and creating structures through which their knowledge and priorities can guide the work.
Because protecting the Great Barrier Reef starts long before water reaches the ocean.
It starts on Country, with the people who have understood those connections all along.
