Dan, Film-maker, PhD student, Broken Hill Wilyakali / Barkindji Country

Dan came to Broken Hill to work on a film about water rights in the Baaka. He stayed and is now studying a PhD on water policy. He spends a lot of time photographing and filming the Menindee Lakes, and even set up a media program at Menindee school, where three year twelve students are graduating this year.

I asked him what the solution is to the water rights issues surrounding the Baaka (murray-darling) River system, and he told me he isn’t sure, but that huge sums of water being used for irrigation and cotton farming up north is a problem, and that indigenous water rights aren’t being considered.

Dan tells me that Broken Hill is quite incredible because there’s such a microcosm of subcultures coexisting in one small town. He says this is because there’s not the same kind of echo chambers here as in the city; people are able to set aside their differences in the far west, especially when it comes to water, as water is the basis of all life for Baaka River country.