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Dan Schulz is a resident of Broken Hill, Wilyakali Country, in NSW, and is exploring issues of water injustice in the Murray-Darling Basin.

A PhD candidate at ANU Institute for Water Futures and the Crawford School of Public Policy, as well as a member of the Water Justice Hub, Dan’s research takes a political ecology approach to analysing the past 30 years of water policy and management in relation to the Darling-Baaka River and Menindee Lakes.

“My research emerges from a close personal relationship to the rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin and a long- held practice of critical thinking around environmental injustices, through media production, art-making and engaged research practices,” Dan said.

“I see water access and distribution as a fundamentally political question, not a technical one, and it is through an understanding of water as socially determined that I pursue engaged research, which includes active participation in community organising and media.”

Weaving several narrative threads which include ecological changes in the Basin, hard and soft infrastructure developments, representational infrastructure, and development of powerful agribusiness-government networks, Dan’s research demonstrates that uneven distribution of gains and losses is fundamental to the structure of policy reform in the Basin.

“My research aims to greater empower people to understand the social, cultural and political mechanisms of water management, and open space for marginalised and alternative understandings to productively participate in democratic processes and social discourse."

Dan is also a visual artist, filmmaker, and co-creator of Water Watch Radio; a weekly radio show about water management, broadcast on the Community Radio Network.