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Traditional fire practices are explored so as to understand transformative relationships to Country and as an analogy for developments in Indigenous Health. Stories of fire encompass the resistance of Indigenous Australians to colonial dispossession. Stories of fire engage Indigenous communities with law and culture and from this with health. Transformative knowledges can be built upon re-kindling Indigenous land and law practices through fire practices. Building relationships with fire and burning practices corresponds with the developing sustainable health and cultural practices across Indigenous communities.

This chapter draws upon the ongoing gaps and injustices in Western water policy and law, exploring its paucity in recognition of Indigenous Water rights. Exacerbated by National Water legislation and ongoing colonial racism, notions of ‘ownership’ of water resources that are licenced through the Crown represent a site where a paradigm shift is needed to dismiss the myth of aqua nullius and secure Aboriginal Water rights (Marshall, 2017). The Gunditjmara success in obtaining United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage listing of the Budj Bim eel traps and the Yarra River (Wilip-gin Birrarung murron) Protection Act (2017) are two examples that illustrate recognition of Aboriginal connections to water, but at the same time reveal weaknesses in Australian water policy. Sustainable Indigenous culture requires legal, social and cultural recognition and enactment of Aboriginal Water rights.

This study aims to examine entry-level PhD students’ experiences with participating in Critical Friends, a peer review protocol, used to support learning the threshold concept of literature review. It also sought to determine if, and how, students used the peer review protocol electively during their first year of doctoral study.

The authors used a sequential, QUAL-qual mixed-method design to guide the study. Reflective learning journals, surveys and interviews were collected from three cohorts of PhD students (N = 18).

Thematic analysis revealed that giving and receiving writing critique was uncomfortable for these novice peer reviewers and many described emotional disciplining associated with vulnerability. Critical Friends offered a safe space to begin mastery of the literature review and begin transforming new researcher and writer identities. While Critical Friends was a positive experience for students, they struggled implementing the protocol on their own following the course.

These findings support the need for faculty to embed peer review opportunities in courses during the first year to facilitate role modeling and mentoring. The findings also demonstrate the need to engage students with peer review early in the program to increase comfort, cultivate student resiliency for accepting critical feedback and build capacity for students to learn with and from others.

This paper advocates for the use of peer review practices early in the doctoral study to promote the development of researcher identity and positioning within the research community.