Irrigator relations with water in the Sunraysia region, northwestern Victoria

Abstract

Irrigated agriculture faces significant challenges under climate change, and may not be feasible in parts of the Murray‐Darling Basin beyond 2050. Recent research into the cultural politics of water has paid limited attention to the water cultures and relations of irrigators in Minority World countries. We analyse the water relations of grape farm irrigators in the Sunraysia region of Victoria using interviews and farm tours undertaken between 2014 and 2016. Findings are summarised under five themes: (1) the sociality of irrigation water, (2) temporal and spatial relations, (3) the risk of rain, (4) the micro‐scale of water knowledge, and (5) environment as actor. These themes shed light on the diverse relations that constitute both environmental and irrigation water. Irrigators are embedded in these relations at multiple scales, local and distant, mediated by technology and infrastructure. The scale of our focus makes visible water and other forms of environmental knowledge that often go unnoticed in broader debates over irrigation. The concept of “the environment”, understood as an embodied actor in policy discourse and by irrigators, is an emergent trend that warrants ongoing research attention.

Recognising knowledge transfers in ‘unskilled’ and ‘low‐skilled’ international migration: Insights from Pacific Island seasonal workers in rural Australia

“…The Sunraysia region is also one of Australia's most ethnically diverse rural areas at least one-third of horticulturalists speak a language other than English at home (Missingham et al, 2006). This article focuses on a subset of a broader research project which has documented culturally diverse perspectives on the environment and agriculture in this region, through interviews with over 130 participants from 15 different countries (Head et al, 2018;Klocker et al, 2018).…”

Spatio-Temporality and Tribal Water Quality Governance in the United States

“…Cycling may take place on large or small spatio-temporal scales [70,71] and involve synchronous or asynchronous patterns in social relationships with water [72,73]. This cycling may involve annual processes such as, for example, toxic contaminants in streams that cycle seasonally [71] or increased water temperatures related to anthropogenic climate change, which affect fisheries [74].…”

“…As Leslie Head suggests, human communities are dependent on distant water flows, but also "pipes, pumps, weirs, and web-based financial transfer instruments", along with other technologies that mediate "human-water relations in various ways and across both space and time" [72]. Such technological mediation may involve water quality through monitoring regimes that assess certain parameters in particular places over time [83]; water infrastructure including dams, diversions, treatment facilities, and irrigation equipment [69,[84][85][86][87]; and a range of technologies that are not specifically water-oriented, but influence water governance [72,88]. As such, technologies that Tribes contend with (each in their own fashion) serve to mediate power relations, inform cultural histories [87], and reconfigure space and time, as they restructure "watery" networks.…”

“…Several aspects of interconnection and fluidity are evident in this case. First, not only does water connect Tribes to distant upstream and downstream relationships through waterways themselves [72]; Tribes are also connected to governance networks that include, for example, regional and national EPA offices; district, state, regional, and federal courts; and tribal offices across the region, with hubs in Washington, DC, Denver, Santa Fe, along the Rio Grande, and beyond. These networks are constituted through fluid relationships in at least three ways.…”

Barriers to and enablers of sustainable practices: insights from ethnic minority migrants

“…As to the second challenge, it is important to recognise that commonly used indicators of environmental knowledge and behaviour are not universally applicable but specific to affluent western contexts and high levels of consumerism. Key examples include purchasing green electricity, green apparel products and energy-efficient cars (Head et al 2018). Broadening our framing involves looking beyond intentional environmental behaviour to actual environmental outcomes that may occur for non-environmental reasons (e.g.…”