This paper describes research concerned with visual representations of water beings and their capacity to articulate human-environmental relationships. Water beings (such as rainbow serpents and
taniwhas) play a role in many different cultural cosmologies, most particularly those oriented towards ‘nature religions’ in which land and water scapes are seen as being animated by sentient beings. Analyses of these visual images, and their transformations over time, suggest that as reflection of cosmological beliefs and values, they can illuminate the past and provide useful insights into key changes in human relationships with water. As representations of the worldviews of
particular groups, they also have a vital function in contemporary debates about environmental management and the ownership and control of water resources. Drawing on examples in Australia and
New Zealand, this paper therefore considers the role of such images as temporal indicators of change, and as symbolic representations of subaltern cosmologies in post-colonial societies. It also examines
the potential implications of the research for theory and method in visual anthropology. By retaining an ethnographically situated approach it aims to demonstrate that transformations in human relations
with water, as expressed through visual imagery of water beings, continue to direct contemporary conflicts over water ownership, management and use.
