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Paper short abstract:

Drawing on the information provided in the submissions to the independent Scientific Inquiry in Hydraulic Fracturing, this thesis aims to address the significance of underground sacred sites in Aboriginal Australia and the effects that significance has on resource contestation

Paper long abstract:

On the 27th of March 2018 the independent Scientific Inquiry into Hydraulic Fracturing of Onshore Unconventional Reservoirs in the Northern Territory released its final report, informed by almost 1300 submissions from a wide range of community groups, resource extraction companies, Aboriginal communities and individuals. The report contains 135 recommendations that, if implemented, are intended to reduce the environmental, social, health, cultural and economic risks to an acceptable level. The recommendation of significance to this thesis is 11.3 of the Aboriginal People and their Culture chapter, in which the Inquiry recommends that, 'the Sacred Sites Act be amended to protect all sub-surface feature of a sacred site'. A database of the submission data was created, categorising all submissions based on demographic information such as individual or types of corporations and their place of residence, as well as references to indigeneity and the underground. The data was analysed in order to understand the tangible or intangible nature of the heritage addressed in the report, how those ideas are expressed, and how they differ between indigenous and non-indigenous submissions. Despite indigenous submissions representing less than 4% of the total database, the cultural consideration throughout the inquiry process suggests an intercultural space between indigenous and non-indigenous people in the Northern Territory and that the significance of underground heritage in Australian Aboriginal culture meaningfully affects resource contestation with non-indigenous parties.