>
Why This Single Photo Of An Aboriginal Man Standing Thoughtful By A Lake Is “A Horrible And Terrible Thing”
- The Betaloo Basin has enormous amounts of shale gas
- Ray Dimakarri Dixon’s photo used on fracking website
- He is an anti-fracking activist and he was outraged.
An elderly Aboriginal man was shocked to discover a website using his image to support fracking, which he has long fought against.
The image of the Mudburra man, Ray Dimakarri Dixon, appeared on a Beetaloo Economic Alliance website alongside a claim that fracking “has no impact on air or water quality”.
The Beetaloo Basin, an area more than twice the size of Tasmania located 500 km south of Darwin, is said to contain enough shale gas to supply Australia for 200 years.
It has attracted interest from energy companies, including Tamboran Resources, interested in exploratory fracking since the Labor Territory government lifted its moratorium on the controversial coal gas ban.
‘I was shocked. It’s a horrible, terrible thing,” Dixon said in a press release issued by the Central Australian Frack Free Alliance (CAAFA).
“It makes me feel like people might look at it and think I support fracking.”
Aboriginal elder Ray Dimakarri Dixon was shocked to discover a website using his image to support fracking, which he has long fought against.
Dixon is a ‘prominent opponent of fracking’
CAAFA explained on its Facebook page that Ray is seen standing in front of the Marlinja stream, the headwaters of the Ijibarda-Jukurlu (Lake Woods) wetland system, which he strives to protect from the harms of unconventional gas fracking.
“You can’t just go and put up a website with a person’s picture on it without talking to them,” Dixon told the abc.
The Betaloo Economic Alliance website also features messages stating that “your opportunity is under attack” and that fracking projects are “in harmony with nature.”
CAAFA says the Betaloo Economic Alliance campaign is likely an example of a marketing tactic called ‘astroturfing’.
Astroturfing is the practice of hiding the true sponsors of a message to make it look like a grassroots campaign.
CAAFA spokeswoman Hannah Ekin said there is no grassroots campaign supporting fracking in the Betaloo Basin.
‘There’s only one massive grassroots campaign that opposes it.’
CAAFA announced that it will take the NT government to the supreme court over an alleged lack of accountability for the environmental impacts of fracking in the Betaloo basin.
The Betaloo Economic Alliance website also features messages stating that “your opportunity is under attack” and that fracking projects are “in harmony with nature.”
The Beetaloo Basin, an area more than twice the size of Tasmania located 500 km south of Darwin, is said to contain enough shale gas to supply Australia for 200 years.