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Yolŋu Aboriginal people's knowledge about water ("gapu") and its governance has strong cultural significance and meaning in East Arnhem Land Aboriginal worlds in northern Australia. This study used transdisciplinary research methods to explore the ways in which Yolŋu Aboriginal gapu and Western science hydrological knowledge can work together and contribute towards water management on Milingimbi Island, a small, resource-constrained, bedrock island. Transcending disciplinary boundaries is distinctly different to an interdisciplinary, socio-hydrological perspective, which can pose a risk to hybridizing Aboriginal knowledge and Western science. Community engagement activities and workshops were conducted as part of a three-year research project to bring together the incommensurable knowledge communities. A participatory three-dimensional mapping exercise created a shared space, facilitating an open-dialogue exchange of insight and knowledge among Aboriginal knowledge authorities, hydrologists, public servants, and academic researchers. This paper prompts readers to reconsider the ways water can be perceived and conserved in a decolonizing way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early European records of indigenous Australian mythology describe the activities of Ancestral Creators and spirits. British colonisation was intense in the southern temperate regions, which became "settled Australia." Here, Aboriginal mythology has undergone significant transformations in response to major social and cultural changes. Knowledge of Creation myths has declined, although contemporary Aboriginal people have maintained and developed a rich folklore centred on spirits and ghosts. While the Australian anthropological literature acknowledges the important religious dimensions of Creation myths, studies of the secularised folklore of indigenous communities living in rural and urban areas have been largely neglected. This paper investigates the roles of Australian Aboriginal mythology in recent indigenous and non-indigenous cultures within temperate Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]