It’s Not Rubbish Country!
I didn’t know where exactly the Roper, Limmen or Towns Rivers were the first time I flew into Ngukurr Community in the south western Gulf of Carpentaria. It has been my great honour to travel and know some of that country since I first lived there in 2004. I have written descriptions of its unique and abundant resources, its unacknowledged importance and, sometimes, contentious land ownership and tenure in numerous funding proposals, communications and acquittal reports over the years.
I’ve had many rich and intricate discussions with countrymen and women in the region about all aspects of practical, traditional and spiritual interrelations with land and sea. I have been on country with pastoralists, station owners and tourists and spoken with them about their experience of the country. All know it differently, but all agree that it is absolutely unique, amazing and valuable country.
Welcomed and kindly assisted by the Traditional Owners (TOs), Community Members and Rangers in the area, I’ve been fortunate to know some of the gulf country. I have worked with the Yugul Mangi Rangers at Ngukurr on ways we could best care for traditional country that fit with the new circumstances of resource use and demand while observing and using wherever possible traditional cultural practices and protocols on and for country.
The first time I was told stories about Maria Island was while at Wiyakiba, south of Numbulwar on the mainland gulf coast. The power and significance of Maria Island and the need to observe proper respect for the place was strongly communicated to me by TOs and Rangers alike. It is this island upon which current mining development interest has planned to build major infrastructure to enable transport of iron ore extracted from the region offshore.
Impact to the area will be substantial environmentally and culturally. TOs and Mara people, who speak for Maria Island, have spoken out in a united voice to say they do not want the development of Maria Island and nearby coastal areas to go ahead. They have requested that ore be transported by road or rail from the area instead, minimizing impact while still allowing for extraction to occur. Maria Island is under Native Title.
There is now and have always been important laws about the land and sea. There is now another set of laws and regulations imposed on land and sea by mainstream government and culture. Interpreting both sets of laws successfully and finding ways to align purposes and integrate methods is no easy task and something that Aboriginal Land and Sea Rangers have been working at for decades.
I have long been inspired by the dedication of Aboriginal Rangers to stay connected to and care for their lands and seas. They recognise that everything is linked to country.
The NT Land Councils that play the role of supporting Aboriginal Rangers and Traditional Owners in fulfilling their aspirations for country also act as negotiator on their behalf and are royalty recipients of mining agreements in the NT. I suggest that Land Councils have an intrinsic conflict of interest and sometimes may engage in potentially divisive consultation processes where TOs willing to agree with plans for development are identified and rewarded for their individual consent before actual consensus of all appropriate parties is reached.
The NT government promotes development and resource extraction wherever possible and generally with the minimum amount of environmental accountability or community consultation. By exploiting NT resources, at the whim of investors, and according to developer’s plans, the NT government is selling out the economic base and future of the NT.
There is a recognizable lack of foresight in the way decisions are reached about resources in the NT. There are uncertain words and concepts that allow for flexible interpretation of the legislation that regulates both government and mining sectors.
Political parties and individuals in power are able to justify interpretations that best suit their aspirations for NT lands or, in some instances, their very immediate careers. The federal government also has strong economic dependence on the mining/oil and gas industries in Australia. This dependency pushes the government call for ‘progress’. Progress in what form, for whom and to what end?
I know this gulf story and I know these people. They are family. They are telling this story of country I have also known through and with them. They are the custodians of the place and keepers of their history, language and culture. All these legacies, as well as food and economic sustainability, are linked to the country that holds the stories of people and creation.
If you choose to betray or deny an entire worldview, tens of thousands of years in the making, by disregarding the spiritual connection to the land or sea, that is one thing. Entirely another is when the keen greed of resource exploitation by man overtakes any other reasoning or purpose for those resources in the short or longer term. How short sighted we’ve become, it seems, in our pursuit to consume the world and everything in it. Have we lost sight of our own requirements for biodiversity to sustain ourselves?
I have seen the news articles and ABC story: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-01/mining-outrage/2779868
To my Gadjin Betty Roberts, Thank you my Gadjin for speaking up for your country. Clarry Rogers, my friend and colleague for so many years. It made my heart soar to see you speak up that way in the news footage. To you and all the Rangers both sides of Maria Island and in the Gulf, Uncle Sammy, Mara Mob, Environment Centre and All the people who made it happen. It’s good to see the story told and with some fantastic photography of the area. My congratulations and love always,
Naritjan
(Karman Lippitt)
August 2011
klippitt 