Dr Erin O'Donnell wins 2025 Paul Bourke Award
Dr Erin O’Donnell of Melbourne Law School has won an Academy of Social Sciences in Australia Paul Bourke Prize for Early Career Research in the field of law, history and philosophy.
Dr O’Donnell is a Senior Lecturer, ARC DECRA Fellow, and Deputy Director (rights of nature and water justice) of the Melbourne Centre for Law and the Environment at Melbourne Law School, whose research is shaping national and international conversations on the legal rights of rivers and Indigenous water justice.
Academy President Professor Kate Darian-Smith described the 2025 prize winners as “remarkable scholars” who are “advancing knowledge in youth substance use, Indigenous media scholarship, legal rights of rivers and forest governance.”
“Their innovative work is helping us better understand and solve real-world challenges, from improving Indigenous water justice to reducing youth vaping rates.”
Dr O’Donnell said: “It is an immense honour to be recognised by the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia. I am extremely proud to be part of the 2025 cohort, which includes outstanding researchers from across Australia.”
As the lead author of the Cultural Water for Cultural Economies project, Dr O’Donnell partnered with Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations (MLDRIN) and twenty other Traditional Owner organisations to identify law and policy pathways to address the inherent water rights of Traditional Owners and First Nations in Victoria. This innovative collaborative project delivered Victoria’s first return of water rights to Traditional Owners in 2020 and prompted an unprecedented state government policy response to improve Traditional Owner access to and care for water.
Dr O’Donnell, along with two Indigenous colleagues, was seconded to the Victorian State Government to help develop this policy, launched in 2022 as ‘Water is Life: Traditional Owner Access to Water Roadmap’. This innovative policy document includes a state government commitment to legislate to recognise all waterways as living entities.
Birrarung (Yarra) River
She explains that: “As rivers gain the legal status of living entities and legal persons, this can transform our relationship from one of exploitation to one of reciprocity and care. These legal reforms are a global phenomenon that can lead to better relations between people and rivers everywhere.”
In 2023, Dr O’Donnell commenced her ARC DECRA research project, focused on supporting Indigenous-led, cultural water knowledge exchanges. This project has supported Indigenous exchanges in the USA, Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand and Sápmi (Sweden, Norway and Finland) to share insights on water justice and river relations, and the opportunity created by treaties.
“As Victoria enters its Treaty era, this creates real opportunities to address ongoing colonial water theft and reactivate Indigenous laws for caring for cultural waterscapes,” she said.