It uses "a major comparative study of water beings in diverse cultural and historical contexts, and considers the central importance of water beings such as Māori taniwha and the Australian Rainbow Serpent in such legal conflicts, and in broader debates about human and non-human rights. Like other water deities around the world, these beings personify the generative (and potentially punitive) powers of water and its co-creative role in shaping human and non-human lives. They are resurfacing today with an important representational role in contemporary conflicts over land and water." https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ocea.5375
And this: Yinbarnini Ngukunginyi (Singing of Water) on #Indigenous challenges to #fracking near #Mudburra Country (N.T.)
"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."
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