A Tide in the River: Auditory Ecologies of Dyarubbin

This personal essay explores the concepts of Deaf gain and acoustic ecologies, and what they might offer the hard of hearing. It is narrated from situated perspective, that of a kayaker with single-sided deafness, paddling on Dyarubbin, a river valley flooded twelve thousand years ago that flows through Dharug, Darkinjung, and Garigal country on the east coast of Australia. Settlers describe this waterway as “the Hawkesbury River,” although tides rise and fall in it more than one hundred kilometers from the sea. In this essay, Dyarubbin—its course carved by fresh water, now both sweet and salty—is in part a metaphor for once-hearing people who have come to exist between the deaf and hearing worlds. The changing water levels of this inundated river raise questions about the “natural” and the “normal,” now and in the future. Reflecting on the embodied experience of paddling on and walking beside Dyarubbin also allows a tracing of auditory ecologies of single-sided deafness in this place: more-than-human entanglements of kayaker, camera, and sandstone escarpment; firetrail, hiker, and hearing aid; stitched together by waves of water, light, and sound.