Monday Maggie: the personhood of nature

In an effort to read more and to write more short pieces, I'm starting a "Monday Maggie" series breaking down something I read last week that's still stuck in my mind. We'll see how it goes!

Support the Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council

I have a fraught relationship with authorship. This stems from several heated conversations when I was a PhD student that I won't get into, but which resulted in high anxiety whenever I contemplate potential author lists or acknowledgements. I've found it helpful to be open and up front about co-authorship early on in the research process, and to lean on frameworks like CRediT to define author roles. Having guide rails has been immensely helpful keeping the panic in check.

All of this would fall apart, of course, if my co-authors weren't human.

The article I've chosen to start this series is Lesley Evans Ogden's Nature Career Feature of Nyikina Warrwa woman and conservationist Anne Poelina, "Why I made a river my co-author" (30 March 2026). In this piece, Ogden speaks with Poelina about her research and her decision to add an unexpected coauthor to her papers: The Martuwarra Fitzroy River, a seasonally-flooding river system in northwestern Australia threatened by fracking, agricultural runoff, and climate change. Martuwarra, RiverOfLife, as it has been registered with ORCID, is a "living Ancestor Being, whose creation stories underpin Kimberley Aboriginal people’s lawful, physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being, and thousands of years of customary practices for Yi-Martuwarra people, the people of the river" (Martuwarra, RiverOfLife et al 2023).
​

In terms of property rights, the river owns me. So, I have a duty of care and the fiduciary duty to protect this river’s right to life.
​-- Anne Poelina

The story of Poelina, the Nyikina, and their connection to the Martuwarra has stuck in my brain since last Friday. I've been contemplating the rivers that have shaped my life and work. In particular, the Eno River runs through Durham, NC where I did my PhD. I spent many hours along and within the banks of the Eno, trail running and foraging and swimming and contemplating. With the Eno, I experienced an osprey diving to catch a fish; fireflies peppering the surrounding forest on early summer evenings; a basketball sized chicken-of-the-woods mushroom that filled my stomach for many meals; finding a tiny turtle in the muck; and many, many moments with friends and alone, reflecting and communing by the water. The Eno River was so important to me that I included it in the acknowledgements section of my  dissertation. I was really nervous to do this, but I figured if I'm allowed to thank my mom, I can thank a river. 

Waterways are integral to the survival and well-being of society, yet the preservation of these ephemeral and ever-changing places is incredibly complex given our human legal systems. River rights are often defined by those who use its water (for more info on American water rights, I point you to Martin Doyle's excellent 2019 book The Source), and yet the impacts of upstream activity on downstream communities and ecosystems is often under-addressed. Not to mention the rights of the rivers to exist in themselves -- The Whanganui River in New Zealand-Aotearoa gained attention in 2017 as the world's first major river to be granted legal personhood. 

​As the scientific hegemony begins to understand and appreciate the necessity of "two-eyed seeing", or the braiding of Indigenous and Western ways of seeing and knowing, I am filled with hope. There is a movement out there led by incredible Indigenous voices, supported by allies and by the rivers themselves. I continue to ponder my place in all of this. My place is not to steal a spotlight or to pontificate overmuch, thereby overshadowing the voices of those doing the actual work. My work is not to be quiet in fear of "overstepping", thereby allowing colonial ways to continue through my silence. I don't think I'll be creating an ORCID for the Eno River or Cayuga Lake anytime soon, but I will continue to find ways to acknowledge the places and natural beings that have shaped my work.

As always, I strive to feel uncomfortable, as that means there is growth happening. Step with me into that discomfort. I promise it's not so scary. And maybe... open your wallet and support the efforts of river keepers?

Support the Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council

Citations

1. Lesley Evans Ogden (2026). Why I made a river my co-author. Nature 652, 259-261.
2. Martuwarra, RiverOfLife, Poelina A, McDuffie M, Perdrisat M (2023). ​Martuwarra Fitzroy River Watershed: One society, one river law. PLOS Water 2(9): e0000104.
3. Martin Doyle (2019). The Source: How Rivers Made America and America Remade Its Rivers. W.W. Norton. 352 pages. ISBN: 978-0-393-24235-5.
4. Bartlett, Marshall & Marshall (2012). Two-Eyed Seeing and other lessons learned within a co-learning journey of bringing together indigenous and mainstream knowledges and ways of knowing.  Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences. 2:331-340