Since 2017, rivers, lakes and wetlands around the world have experienced a profound transformation in law: they have become legal persons, legal subjects, living persons, and/or living entities. This alchemical transfiguration from legal object to legal subject renders the river uniquely visible, and legible, to the law in ways it has not been before, and often brings with it new legal rights and powers. This transformation has major implications for freshwater science, law and policy. It profoundly challenges the foundational assumption of Western and settler colonial water law and policy: that water is merely a resource, capable of exploitation for human consumption. Living rivers equally challenge the Western and settler colonial scientific assumptions about what science is, who does it, how, and why. Recognising rivers as living beings in law creates an opportunity to repair our relationship with rivers. This opportunity is particularly important in settler colonial countries like Australia, where failing to respect the laws of, and learn from, Indigenous Peoples has created lasting legitimacy and sustainability problems for settler state water management. When a river is a living entity, or a legal person, the question for all water scholars and practitioners becomes: what does it mean to be in good relations with the river? This presentation will draw on Australian and international examples of living rivers, as well as the Cultural Water Paradigm, to show what a good relationship with waterways could look like.