How a new ‘Fishheart’ project is combining science, community and Indigenous art to restore life in the Baaka-Darling River

A new state-of-the-art tube fishway technology called the “Fishheart” has been launched at Menindee Lakes, located on the Baaka-Darling River, New South Wales.

The technology – part of the NSW government’s Restoring the Darling-Baaka program – will allow native fish to move past large barriers, such as dams, weirs and regulators, when they need to. It’s hoped this will help the fish reproduce and survive, and reduce the risk of mass fish deaths in the Baaka.

At the same time, meaningful policy reform and implementation can’t be achieved without input from First Nations communities. So how do we do this? One creative collaboration on the Fishheart project suggests art may have a big role to play.

Distressing images

Several deeply distressing mass fish death events have occurred in the river since 2018, with millions of native fish, including golden perch, silver perch and Murray cod, dying due to insufficient oxygen in the water.

These events are the outcome of compounding challenges in managing the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia’s largest inland river system. The basin, which stretches from Southern Queensland to South Australia, is a water source for some three million people.

But the construction of infrastructure such as dams, weirs and regulators has profoundly disrupted the natural processes that once sustained healthy river systems. This disruption has been made worse by ineffective and conflict-ridden governance.

The Baaka is a source of life and wellbeing for numerous communities. It should be cared for with the same urgency and coordination as a critically ill patient. If too many doctors or nurses are involved without a clear shared treatment plan, the patient suffers. Likewise, when multiple agencies attempt to manage a sick river, the system can break down.

So how can better care be achieved? For Barkindji Elder David Doyle the answer lies in doing it together.

Seeking and listening to Aboriginal community

Aboriginal peoples have been explaining the importance of Australia’s inland rivers for generations. The Aboriginal community at Menindee held protests about the health of the Baaka two years before the first mass fish deaths. Yet their voices and cultural knowledges have not reconfigured river policy.

A report by the NSW Office of the Chief Scientist and Engineer into the March 2023 mass fish deaths on the Lower Baaka identified the importance of including Aboriginal cultural knowledges in strategies for fish species regeneration and management.

However, according to Barkindji Ngnukuu elder Barbara Quayle, the community’s experience of “consultation” has been a tick-box activity. She says there is no trust that cultural knowledges or community perspectives will actually be listened to.

The power of the arts

Traditional cultural knowledges are often held and expressed through various artforms, from story, to dance, to gallery arts. Within rural and remote communities, the arts and art-making create conditions that can help people work together to address complex issues. In fact, there’s a long history of the arts being used to address social conflict.

Can the Fishheart help prevent fish kills? We don’t know. But the Barkindji community’s artistic input in the project is enabling a more integrated approach to finding out.

Elders and community members have come together with regional arts organisation, The Cad Factory, and the NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development’s Fisheries branch, to design traditional knowledge-inspired art for the Fishheart pipes.

This art was painted onto the pipes by members of Barkindji community over the past month. Other community art, including collaborations with the local school, was also placed around the site.

Making the art gave everyone involved the time, space and tools to consider and discuss the project. We learned how the Fishheart technology is inspired by the human heart, with tubes resembling “veins” and “arteries” that can take fish in and “pump” them over barriers through a siphon effect, letting them circulate throughout the river.

We discussed important details on how this technology works, which includes using artificial intelligence used to detect fish in the pipes and collect real-time data and photos of the migration. We also considered how we might further care for the river, by potentially allowing the removal of invasive species, or monitoring for diseases.

The project also provided fisheries managers with the opportunity to hear community concerns, such as whether the installation of fishways might be perceived in ways associated with colonisation, or eventually lead to fish removal from the waterways.

Most importantly, seeing the pipes visually transformed by Barkindji art connected the Fishheart to place and Country. The art provides a tangible expression of uninterrupted Barkindji custodianship for the river and the species that depend on it.

With art, there is hope for creating policy together – policy that might promote the health of the river as a whole, rather than treating the symptoms of the problem.

Claire Hooker receives funding from the NHMRC, MRFF, ARC, and University of Sydney. She is affiliated with Arts Health Network NSW/ACT.

Barbara Quayle is the Vice-president of the Menindee Aboriginal Elders Council, sits on the Barkindji Native Title Board and NSW Aboriginal Water Strategy Board and is a founding guide of Barkindji cultural immersion tour group, Wontanella Tours.

Dave Doyle is a member of the Menindee Aboriginal Elders Council, a previous member of the Barkindji Native Title Board, sits on the NSW Aboriginal Water Strategy Board and is a founding guide of Barkindji cultural immersion tour group, Wontanella Tours.

Reakeeta Smallwood has received funding from ARC and NHMRC, in partnership with University of Sydney, University of Newcastle and University of New England. These funding sources are not relevant to this article or project.