Kimberley Friction: Complex Attachments to Water-Places in Northern Australia (Report‪)‬

This article explores water as central to defining complex attachments to place, an approach that is concerned to contribute to discussion beyond water's conceptualisation as a vital and natural resource in need of environmental management. The value of an active discourse and practice that emphasises water as a resource to be managed is obvious, for example, in cases where a sudden increase in water flows has the potential to transform rivers into floods with serious consequences for humans and other species. My interest, however, is to consider whether discussion of attachment to water sources in the Kimberley region of northern Western Australia, can show how, and to what extent, contemplation of water/human relationships might fruitfully facilitate understandings of 'place-based cultures' (Escobar 2001:142). While notions of 'attachment' are sometimes conflated or confused with concepts of 'belonging'--about how and why persons (and/or native and introduced species, and so on), reveal or describe a sense of belonging to certain places and environments (see, for instance, Trigger and Mulcock 2005, 2005a who discuss nature, culture and belonging in an Australian urban setting)--the emphasis here is primarily on attachment. Like my co-contributors (some of whom examine concepts of belonging), I am concerned to extrapolate varied interpretations about a key environmental trope--in this case, water--to foster a deepened understanding not only about a precious environmental resource, but also about social life, cultural politics and material struggles in an Australian setting.