Arabella Douglas is a Minjungbal Bundjalung woman, legal scholar, and climate justice advocate focused on the health impacts of displacement, water insecurity, and ecological breakdown.
She has led UN submissions on river personhood, oceans and human rights, and ecological knowledge systems in the Murray–Darling Basin.
As an author of the Bundjalung Flood Report and former NSW State Regional Director of the Aboriginal Housing Office during the 2010–2012 floods, Arabella brings deep expertise in flood recovery, land policy, climate finance, and intergovernmental failure. Her advocacy for Cabbage Tree Island (2022) led to a Premier’s commitment, yet almost four years on, no housing has been delivered due to governance blockages in Native Title, LALCs, and statutory systems. Arabella warns that without urgent reform, these structures will continue to displace both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities. She calls for legally binding mechanisms like Canada’s Bill C-15 to implement UNDRIP, alongside Nature Rights laws and EPBC Act reform, and urges all regional communities to engage with these systems to strengthen shared environmental, social, and climate security.