Ray Dimakarri Dixon has been a long-time critic of fracking in the Northern Territory's Beetaloo basin.
So it was with surprise that the Mudburra elder learned his image was being used without permission on a website advocating the development of the gas-rich region.
"I was shocked. It's horrible, terrible stuff," Mr Dixon said in a press release issued by the Central Australian Frack Free Alliance (CAAFA)
"It makes me feel that people might be looking at it and thinking that I support fracking," Mr Dixon said.
"But I've been standing up for my country, and water, and the environment."
The website of the "Beetaloo Economic Alliance" describes the basin's vast shale gas reserves, about 500 kilometres south-east of Darwin, as a "once in a generation opportunity".
But it warns that the opportunity is "under attack" and encourages people to write to local federal Labor MP Marion Scrymgour to counter anti-fracking campaigns.
"Let's not allow a few well-meaning, albeit misguided voices [to] take this opportunity away from us," it says.
The website provides no information about what the Beetaloo Economic Alliance is.
It also has no contact details, and an online search shows it was registered in November last year by an undisclosed applicant.
However, the website features a photo of Mr Dixon alongside a headline which states: "No impact on air or water quality".
Mr Dixon said he was appalled.
"You can't just go and put a website up with a person's image without talking to them," he said.
"They've got no respect for traditional owners of this land."
CAFFA spokesperson Hannah Ekin said the website appeared to be a case of "astroturfing" — a term used to describe deceptive internet campaigns strategically designed to look like grassroots movements.
"There is no grassroots campaign supporting Beetaloo, there's just a massive grassroots campaign opposing it," Ms Ekin told ABC Darwin.
"And so they're trying to match us by building their own website and trying to fake a supporter base."
Website's creator remains unknown
Ms Ekin said the website was only discovered after a colleague put the hashtag "Beetaloo" into Twitter and noticed an account with the name "Beetaloo Economic Alliance".
The account only has four followers and includes 13 tweets and retweets since December last year, all of which advocate the Beetaloo's economic and environmental credentials, or condemn campaigns opposed to its development.
Ms Ekin likened the website to the "Back Beetaloo" campaign which emerged during last year's federal election.
"Back Beetaloo's astroturfing was unethical, but the Beetaloo Economic Alliance's use of a traditional owner's image — one who is committed to the fight against fracking at that — without his permission is totally unacceptable."
Earlier this month, CAFFA launched a legal challenge against the NT government's approval of Tamboran Resource's fracking plans in the Beetaloo basin.
A spokesperson for the company said it had "no idea who is behind the website".
The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA), which represents the gas industry, also said it had had no involvement.
Website is not sophisticated 'astroturfing' campaign: expert
Associate lecturer Syed Mahbub from La Trobe University, who has researched astroturfing, said the process was designed to propagate inaccurate information to a broad audience.
He said this was usually done by hiring spammers to flood social media networks with false narratives "to make it look like as if it is coming from a large group of people who believe in this".
Mr Mahbub said the low number of tweets posted on the Beetaloo Economic Alliance account indicated the campaign was not sophisticated.
"That's why it's very difficult to put the term 'astroturfing' on this," he said.
"If it was the case where there are many people who are … continuously flooding the network with the URL of this website trying to reach a broader group of people, [then] that would be more of a large scale, or serious 'astroturf' attack."
Several companies currently have approval to explore for gas in the Beetaloo basin, but the NT government is yet to confirm when full-scale production will go ahead.
It was originally expected to start by the end of last year, but 35 recommendations from the Pepper Inquiry were yet to be implemented as of last month.
