NEW RESEARCH EXPLORES SIGNIFICANCE OF WATERHOLES FOR FIRST NATIONS DESERT PEOPLE

Dr John Binda Reid has spent many years conducting research with Aboriginal men from Northern Territory communities. Credit: Supplied.

Waterholes are culturally, socially and ceremonially important sites for Indigenous people in Australia’s desert and arid regions.

That was a key finding of PhD research by an Aboriginal researcher at Charles Darwin University.

Nyunga man Dr John Binda Reid spent six years working with Aboriginal men from 11 communities and six language groups in the Northern Territory to research First Nations patterns of migration.

He found that waterholes were key parts of pre- and post-colonial migration routes.

Dr Reid explained his research to Ngaarda Media’s Gerard Mazza: