Melissa Kennedy

Melissa Kennedy is a Tati Tati woman from Murray River Country, a Research Fellow in Water Policy and Social Science at the University of Melbourne, and a Senior Atlantic Fellow for Social Equity, a global community collaborating across borders and disciplines to address the root causes of inequity. Her research focus centres on better understanding and documenting the relationship between people, water, and wellbeing, to enable policy change and enduring transfers of power.

Melissa is also a Director of Tati Tati Kaiejin, an Indigenous-owned and operated non-profit conservation organisation that applies place-based Indigenous ecological science to heal waterways and land. Through previous initiatives, including co-authoring the Victorian Governments policy commitment Water Is Life, Melissa has developed and led community programs and research to combat the settler-colonial control of water resources at the exclusion of First Nations’ inherent rights and responsibilities.

Involved in:

• Regional water management: values, priorities and decision making (April 2025)