‘Water is life’: Indigenous musicians take Beetaloo basin anti-fracking message to Canberra

‘Music is the strongest way to reach out’: Mudburra traditional owner Ray Dimakarri Dixon (left) and Jingili singer-songwriter Stuart Nuggett in Canberra, where they raised concerns about fracking. Photograph: Michelle Haywood

For Jingili singer-songwriter Stuart Nuggett, “water is life” and he wants to see it protected for future generations. “I do a song about the effects of fracking on water. It has a strong message about how water is sacred, how water is life,” he says.

Nuggett is based in Alice Springs but comes from Elliott, which sits within the region of the Northern Territory known as the Beetaloo basin, where traditional owners have been fighting to protect their country from fracking.