EveryOne, EveryWhere, EveryWhen: Just water futures for three Living Rivers

• Provides a narrative linking Indigenous and dominant knowledge for the Living Rivers: Baaka, Roper and Martuwarra. • Documents ’yarns’ and in-place dialogues with Indigenous Elders and other knowledge holders about the three Living Rivers. • Identifies four on-going pressures on the three Living Rivers: expropriation, extraction, exploitation, and exclusion. • Calls for Just Water Futures for all rivers grounded in Indigenous knowledge and First (Customary) Law. We provide a collective narrative that connects Indigenous and dominant knowledge around three Living Rivers in Australia: Baaka (New South Wales), Roper (Northern Territory), and Martuwarra (Western Australia) that are acknowledged by the Traditional Custodians as living ancestors. Drawing on interviews in 2024 with eight Indigenous Elders who belong to one of the three Living Rivers, and other knowledge holders, all of whom are co-authors, we provide a holistic understanding of the place, story, importance, and threats to these rivers. The narrative is developed from ‘In-place Dialogues’ as a form of cross-cultural ‘Yarning’ with local knowledge holders captured on film, transcribed and then contextualised by a collective voice. The collective narrative describes expropriation (e.g. dispossession of Country including of the Living Rivers), extraction (e.g. systematic water extractions from the Living Rivers unauthorized by Indigenous Traditional Custodians), exploitation (e.g. no or minimal water rights accorded to First Peoples of the Living Rivers) and exclusion (e.g. lack of legal recognition of ‘First Law’ and dominant legal decision-making authority for the Living Rivers) in relation to the three rivers. In response, we argue for Just Water Futures for Living Rivers centred on Indigenous knowledge and First Law that ‘Expands the Circle’ of knowledge and decision-making in relation to the who, what, how and when water gets allocated for the benefit of all (humans and non-humans) forever, what we call EveryOne , EveryWhere , EveryWhen .