Melissa Kennedy

Melissa Kennedy is a Tati Tati First Nations person belonging to Murray River Country in Australia. She is a PhD candidate at Monash University, and a Senior Atlantic Fellow for Social Equity, a global community collaborating across borders and disciplines to address the root causes of inequity. Melissa sits on the advisory board for the federal Aboriginal Water Entitlements Program, and is the Director and cofounder of Tati Tati Kaiejin, an Indigenous owned and operated conservation organisation. In 2022, Melissa was a co-author of the Victorian Government’s policy Water is Life: Traditional Owner Access to Water Roadmap.

Erin O’Donnell, PhD, is a settler water law and policy expert, recognized internationally for her research into the legal rights for rivers and Indigenous rights to water. Since 2018, Erin has been a member of the Birrarung Council, the voice of the Yarra River in Melbourne. In 2022, Erin was a co-author of the Victorian Government’s policy Water is Life: Traditional Owner Access to Water Roadmap. In 2023, Erin commenced an ARC-funded research fellowship to explore the opportunity of treaty to address aqua nullius, increase Traditional Owner power and resources in water, and create more sustainable and legitimate settler state water laws.