Gudanji For Country Bush Trip
Rikki Dank/Lhudi Noralima is a Gudanji and Wakaya person from the Barkley tablelands area of the Northern Territory, an area more widely known for being part of the Beetaloo Basin. With this Country at imminent risk of fracking, Rikki recently launched Gudanji For Country Bush Trips with the inaugural trip taking place in July 2023. The intention of the trip, supported by a Groundswell grant, was to connect key climate activists with Gudanji people and Country in order to build a strong network of allies across the climate movement and amplify their campaign to stop fracking and protect Country.
Here’s more about the trip, in Rikki’s words.
Rikki Dank
The purpose of our trip
The Gudanji area is in danger of being fracked without the consent of Traditional Owners. More destructive than the mining industry, fracking destroys homes and pollutes the air and water and will further the impacts of climate change on Country and around the world. For the Gudanji people, it will also destroy song-lines and sacred sites and Country will no longer be able to be cared for as it has been since millennia.
Realising the strength in our resistance, but the need for help, we invited key stakeholders from climate advocacy organisations around Australia to see our Country and learn what’s at stake if we don't stop fracking, with the hope they can then return home and take action in their respective fields.
Making lagija on Gudanji Country
What we did on the trip
We visited the town of Borroloola and learned about the community’s greatly limited access to food and supplies and why being forced off Country is making the constraints associated with living remotely harder.
We spent a lot of time fishing at the McArthur River Crossing in the past, but this has become more difficult due to the effects of the McArthur River Mine, one of the world’s largest open cut zinc and lead mines. It has contributed significantly to the pollution of the surrounding land, air and water and to the destruction of the McArthur River ecosystem.
We met with family and talked about the impacts of the mine and our fears for our water resulting from fracking on the Beetaloo. We also visited fracking sites, including two sites already drilled by Empire Energy, and were unable to pass the gates which are locking us out of our own Country.
We spent time at Caranbirini Conservation Reserve, a magical place full of amazing animals, plants and rock formations as well as many culturally significant sites, and Sandy Creek, a quiet place, a half hour walk off the road, where we can fish and cool off. We spent some time fishing here and were fortunate to see some Gouldian finches amongst all the wildlife.
Out on Country for the inaugural Gudanji For Country Bush Trip, 2023
“Getting out onto Country with Rikki and her family was a beautiful opportunity to understand their history, their love for place, and the challenges they face from the fracking and mining industries. It was a privilege to be able to sit with local elders and leaders and hear their stories and their concerns. ”
Guests on the inaugural Gudanji For Country Bush Trips, July 2023
What happens next
We will continue to work with our guests and engage with them in public awareness community campaigning and political engagement. We are extremely grateful to the team at Equity Generation Lawyers who joined us on this trip and will continue to work with them as we investigate our legal options to protect Country.
In future we’d like to host longer research trips to help to grow the body of research around Aboriginal culture and our connection to Country and our non-human kin, as well as the importance of this relationship in sustaining our people and our Country. We aim to support research which respects indigenous intellectual and cultural property and involves culturally responsive methodological processes.
Next, Dr Debra Dank is looking to build upon her research work. Gudanji women hold responsibilities and obligations to protect Country and want to work with Western trained researchers who have expertise in Western thinking and knowledge in attempts to establish a network of holistic knowledge offering new information and understanding of the ways that Gudanji manage Country through long held cultural practices. This will contribute important information for an informed response to the climate emergency and fracking practice.
We welcome any support and collaboration with this work. Contact Rikki to learn more about how to get involved.