Yinbarnini Ngukunginyi (Singing of Water)

ABSTRACT Exploratory fracking has commenced in the Beetaloo Basin, adjacent to Mudburra Country. At the time of writing, the Northern Territory Government is preparing to issue production licences to the gas companies involved. Environmental groups and some Aboriginal traditional owners, however, are insisting that the potential impact on land, water, pastoral operations, and Aboriginal communities has not been properly taken into account. Amongst other things, they point to the existence of stygofauna – tiny creatures that live in the underground water – which, though known to the traditional owners for millennia, are relatively new to western science. (It is likely that a word for stygofauna existed in the Mudburra language, but as far as we know it has not survived.) Research to establish environmental baselines prior to the commencement of fracking indicates that the stygofauna perform a vital function in purifying the underground water, and that they would be seriously threatened by fracking operations. As part of the protest movement against fracking, the authors have composed a song about stygofauna to be taught to the Mudburra children at Newcastle Waters School.