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Paper short abstract

This study integrates Indigenous knowledge with biology and other scientific explorations to map the natural and supernatural environments of mermaids from Aboriginal lore, exploring their habitats, forms, and personalities, and their relations with people and ecosystems.

Paper long abstract

Across Aboriginal communities of northern Australia, Dreamtime stories speak of mermaid women who inhabit specific landscapes and shift between forms. In the Yanyuwa language, mawurrangantharra means a dream that opens vision into the spiritual world. Mermaid Dreaming beings have appeared to Yanyuwa women as goannas, transmitting songs and dances about caring for country and being mothers and lovers (Mackinlay & Bradley, 2003). Near Belyuen community, some waterholes are known as mermaid dwellings, where spirits can lure and endanger unfamiliar men. West Arnhem traditions describe Yawkyawks as spirits who “live in the water, others on the land. Some have fish tails and others feet like humans. They can call out, and if you hear them, they can affect your mind,” recounts a song by Yalandja, a Kuninjku man (Garde, 2005).

Committed to understanding their habitats, this paper engages with mermaid spirits through the knowledge and experiences of Indigenous Australians. We aim to map their natural and supernatural environments through the abiotic and biological characteristics of the places they inhabit, while also attending to their diversity, personalities, and powers. By engaging with Indigenous knowledge alongside scientific approaches we broaden the scope of environmental thought, reframing geoheritage and ecological practices to include biodiversity and geodiversity as understood through Dreamtime and ongoing relationships of Aboriginal Australians with land and water.