CRISIS at Bulahdelah

To:  The Hon. Tony Burke, Federal Minister for Aboriginal Cultural Heritage & recipients listed below 

Posted on Prime Minister Julia Gillard's website and on www.worldatpolarity.blogspot.com  

This is a crisis.   And it appears that none of you have any understanding of the enormity of this situation or the scale of the destruction you are wreaking at Bulahdelah, without any need, without any justification, and without any concern for the hundreds of people affected, especially the Worimi. What you have already allowed at this beautiful, unique place of extraordinary cultural and environmental value, eminently worthy of even World Heritage listing, is nothing less than an atrocity  –  you’re job is to PROTECT these important places, not destroy them!  And what you intend to allow to happen,  i.e. the COMPLETE DESECRATION of The famous Sacred Alum Mountain and ruination of the town, while you inexplicably delay processing the now numerous s.9 and s.10 protection applications, is so utterly reprehensible, so heinous that we people who care have no option but to vigorously oppose it.

Do you really think you’ll get away with vandalism of this magnitude to one of Australia’s most precious icons? That the custodians and culture/environment protectors will just give up and forget all about it?  I am not an ‘extremist’, but your inexplicable and it will be alleged, fraudulent denial of the relevance and sanctity of this revered place in the face of overwhelming evidence of the Aboriginal custodians' deep & enduring traditions and relationship with it; your complete contempt of due process in delaying for an inordinately long time (a year and a half in one case) the many ‘top-priority’ applications for protection, and your obvious intention to continue with this INSANE route through the mountain instead of the sane route to the west of the township, is forcing me to personally consider some form of extreme action to focus media attention on the overt corruption that has been revealed in the Karuah Land Council, the Great Lakes Council and in both federal and state government departments. Whatever I do, it will not involve putting anyone or anything at risk of harm.

You WILL face accountability for your actions, hopefully sooner rather than later, for denying the evidence that has been presented to you, for the destruction of the Guardian Tree & 20 other scarred and significant ancient trees, for the destruction of the Healing Stream, for clearing many hectares of a unique forest ecology, and for the risks of illness and harm you are exposing residents and drivers to. The truth will come out - it always does – and there are enough people committed to bringing you justice to ensure it does.

Maureen Brannan  905 Wilsons Road CLOYNA QLD 4605  ph:  0427710523

PS:   Mark Nizette, via your A/g Director of Indigenous Heritage Law Reform has told Estelle Carrall that he proposes to recommend to you that he finds Worimi Date's s.9 application invalid. It is simply not possible that this application is invalid given the enormous evidence to the contrary, so this advice would not just be bad, it would be a LIE. No-one likes to admit they've made a mistake, but most of us don't lie to perpetuate our errors, and we don't expect federal government ministers and bureaucrats to either, especially concerning such momentously significant issues.

PPS:  Peter Graham may be interested in this seminar - I'm sure the outcomes would be instructive for him in his undertakings in Indigenous Heritage Law Reform, and also considering the Federal Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984 is similarly 'much outdated' and badly in need of reform, evidenced in its allocation in the wrong department.  I've taken the opportunity to contact the speakers to find out what their opinion of his judgement is, and whether they could offer some advice: 

Protection of Aboriginal Cultural Heritage:  The Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act 2003 and the Torres Strait Islander Cultural Heritage Act 2003 commenced on 16 April 2004 as part of a strategy to provide protection for Indigenous cultural heritage and to improve the process for addressing cultural heritage matters.  The Acts repealed the Cultural Record (Landscapes Queensland and Queensland Estate) Act 1987 which was much outdated.

The main purpose of the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act 2003 is to provide effective recognition, protection and conservation of Aboriginal cultural heritage.

Significant obligations are imposed under the Act, particularly under the:  Cultural heritage duty of care and offence provisions; and Cultural heritage management plans.

The Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act 2003 will soon be under review.Come and listen to the following speakers who will provide their report card on how the Act has performed since its enactment.
Speakers:
1. Paul Travers, Director of the Cultural Heritage Coordination Unit, Department of Natural Resources and Water, who will provide an overview of the cultural heritage legislation – four years on.
2. Wesley Aird, member of the Gold Coast Native Title Group, who will provide an indigenous perspective on the operation of the legislation and its effect on cultural heritage and stakeholders.
3. Gavin Scott, Senior Associate at Blake Dawson, who will provide an overview on the manner in which the legislation has been adopted by project proponents and legal issues that have arisen in meeting the cultural heritage duty of care.

PPS:  Songs of Praise last Sunday covered the ceremonial pilgrimage route from London to Winchester - there are such pathways, broadly equivalent to the Songlines, to all the world’s revered places that people have walked for millennia to take part in sacred ceremony or for healing. Bulahdelah’s spectacular Mountain could, with very little effort, become a mecca for 'pilgrims' from all over Australia and the world, and Bula’s healing stream, when restored, would be an integral part of their experience, as would Frog Rock, as would the fascinating history of Mountain Park Public Reserve, as would the 86 species of orchids and the trees of significance (had they not all been callously felled). It will require all the skills of the Worimi people to manage the potential increase of tourism so that the tranquility and the rarified/sanctified atmosphere of the mountain is not compromised. That could be the bright and prosperous future for Bulahdelah ... once you've stopped blasting a 6-lane dual carriageway through it that is, and re-routed the highway to take Option A's to the west, which is the SANE and INTELLIGENT thing to do.

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Please read this email to NSW Deputy Leader the Hon. Duncan Gay - the points I've made apply equally to yourself, especially the point that I have never, ever received a direct response from a minister of any Australian government.

From: maureen brannan

To: David Collett's Office - Linda Baulch ; Fed Heritage Dr David Collett ; Fed Heritage Min Tony Burke ; Fed Heritage Rochelle Johnston ; Fed Min Indigenous Affairs Jenny Macklin ; NSW Attorney General Greg Smith ; NSW Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner ; NSW Min for Aboriginal Affairs Victor Dominello ; NSW Min for Central Coast Chris Hartcher ; NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell ; Peter Garrett

Cc: Black/Green Solidarity List ; Al Oshlack-Indigenous Justice Advocacy Network ; EDO Northern Rivers ; Fed Leader of Opposition ; Fed Shadow Min Indigenous Affairs ; Greens Bob Brown ; Greens Sen Christine Milne ; Koori Mail ; National Indigenous Times ; NSW Aboriginal Land Council ; SBS Living Black

Sent: Tuesday, July 05, 2011 4:01 PM

Subject: YOUR URGENT ATTENTION REQUIRED - Response to NSW Deputy Leader the Hon. Duncan Gay

Dear Mr Gay,

Thank you for your response (via your Chief of Staff) to my letter regarding the federal and NSW state governments' continued alleged illegal desecration and destruction of the Sacred Alum Mountain, that was passed onto you by the Prime Minister. I have responded in red in parentheses within the body of your letter. Please attend to the specific points I've made as a matter of the utmost urgency, i.e. in order to save Frog Rock (and indeed the integrity of the entire sacred mountain estate) from imminent irrevocable damage by blasting, which will be alleged is illegal. Estelle Carrall has provided the federal minister responsible for protecting this incredibly important sacred place with additional verification and evidence that Frog Rock, and the entire ‘body of Bula’ is held in the highest veneration by the traditional custodians, and has been so since the beginnings of humanity, i.e. it could not possibly be MORE significant and worthy of protection! (Included below for your information.)

Please respond in person – in my 30 years of activism to help try and save Australia’s environmental and Aboriginal cultural heritage, I have never once received a direct response from a minister. I’ve always assumed this is so that the minister can claim ‘plausible deniability’ when the excrement they have created hits the proverbial, as has happened here. Please prove me wrong.

Maureen Brannan  905 Wilsons Road CLOYNA QLD 4605  ph:  0427710523

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NSW GOVERNMENT

Office of the Hon. Duncan Gay MLC

Deputy Leader of Government in the Legislative Council

Minister for Roads and Ports

M11/2057

27 Jun 2011

Ms Maureen Brannan

905 Wilsons Road

CLOYNA QLD 4605

Dear Ms Brannan

Thank you for your letter to the Prime Minister, which was referred to the Minister for Roads and Ports about the approved route for the Bulahdelah Bypass on the Pacific Highway. The Minister has asked me to respond on his behalf.

I understand that an application for protection of alleged Aboriginal heritage objects [By ‘objects’ I presume you mean the most sacred mountain of the Worimi nation, the body of their Ancestral Creator Being Bula…] under Commonwealth law is currently being considered by an independent specialist before being determined by the federal Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities. [Why is ‘Heritage’ omitted from this list of portfolios and also omitted from the minister's own official letter head and signing? Is he not responsible for this portfolio, which by the way, adds significantly to his already ridiculously over-burdened responsibilities? Is it the same for all the state governments that Aboriginal Cultural Heritage is the responsibility of their Minister for Environment??? If so, there needs to be a Royal Commission – if not, why then is it so in the federal government? Please ask the PM to explain why, given the high level of experience and background knowledge a minister (and his advisors) would need about Aboriginal cultures to assess their heritage values in order to use the Act to protect them if necessary, has this VERY busy minister, who clearly knows less than nothing about Aboriginal issues, been given this critically important portfolio? I’ve been asking the PM why for over a year now, requesting that the Aboriginal Heritage portfolio is immediately transferred to the far more appropriate Department of Indigenous Affairs, and that any further destruction of cultural heritage under current application for protection, lodged in the demonstrably wrong department, be put on hold whilst this takes place. I requested that thereafter a thorough review be made of all previous decisions made from this department that have resulted in destruction of Aboriginal cultural heritage. As the PM has done nothing to address this, I can only assume that by leaving it in this department, the federal government deliberately intends to continue to subvert justice for the nation’s First Peoples, thus continuing the cultural genocide that began over 200 years ago. I will be calling for a Senate Inquiry into this farcical bureaucratic anomaly that has caused untold damage to Aboriginal cultural heritage, as well as asking the UN to urgently intervene.]  Thank you for providing a copy of your submission to this ongoing process.

I understand the Roads and traffic Authority (RTA) has consulted extensively with the local community and other stakeholders for the past 10 years to ensure that the Bulahdelah upgrade and its complex environmental and heritage issues have been fully considered. [Your ‘understanding’ is completely wrong – the RTA did not consult with the Bulahdelah community at all: they held one public meeting to announce their presence in Bulahdelah, closed meetings with a ‘focus group’ and a second public meeting to announce the then Minister for Roads, Carl Scully’s ‘Preferred Option’ - that is not consultation at all, let alone 'extensively'.  The most important people involved have been, and still are, completely ignored; the relevant issues therefore have not been considered at all …. and there wouldn’t be any environmental or cultural heritage issues, European or Aboriginal, if the logical, safer, cheaper and far superior Option A had been adopted.]

All required NSW and federal approvals have been obtained for the project.  The approved route is considered to best address the wide range of competing needs that must be considered including environmental, heritage, social, engineering and cost factors.  [This is basically the same RTA standard sentence that has been rolled out every time anyone has asked for JUSTIFICATION of Option E – none has ever been given. It has been proven to be false, in detail, over and over again by many experts in the field, including the RTA themselves, evidenced in their own records!  However, the sentence has now been expanded to fraudulently list the attributes of the western route, Option A - environmental, heritage, social, engineering and cost factors - as being those of Option E.]

I am also advised that the approved route has the support of the local council, [Yes, that is because the Great Lakes Council had a land ownership pecuniary interest in this route; they also have conflict of/pecuniary interest by way of building approval income/rates etc. from a McDonald’s restaurant and a brewery-resort which they have approved to be built adjacent to this route, NEAR the mountain and therefore also impacting its sanctity.] a significant portion of the wider community [The RTA DID NOT INFORM the wider community that Option E, in addition to being the most dangerous route in relation to traffic flow, would have major landslide and rockfall hazards - that critical information was kept hidden until the release of the EIS which, in its ‘Landslide Risk Assessment’, did not contain any estimation whatsoever of the risks of landslides from the mountain’s upper regions.  The RTA DID NOT INFORM the wider community that road users would be travelling through an existent landslide, nor of the fact that a western route would have NONE of these hazards.]  and other key stakeholders including the Karuah Local Aboriginal Land Council.  [who, with two parcels of land within the Option E footprint, had a pecuniary interest, … and who are, in any event, NOT the traditional cultural custodians of the site! They are Worimi and Cynthia Dates and their children and grandchildren who inherit custodianship, and they have been HORRENDOUSLY ABUSED and have never been consulted in any way – why not?  I strongly suggest that you personally visit the webpage titled NSW - International Criminal Court Material at: http://bulahdelahbypass.wordpress.com/n-nsw-international-criminal-court-material/ and learn of just some of the shocking criminal assaults on Worimi.  Worimi, and thereby all of his family have also been defamed by a Len Roberts, councillor, Great Lakes Council, deputy chairperson of Karuah land council and Baptist church elder.  Defamation of character litigation against Roberts et al is imminent. I am informed Len Roberts has also been allocated a place on the Wall of Shame: http://bulahdelahbypass.wordpress.com/6-wall-of-shame-publication-pending/]   Major construction started in August 2010. [The major construction period for this geotechnically difficult route is documented in the EIS as being for three years, which is more than likely wrong as the Nerong ‘upgrade’ blasting took over twice as long as estimated. Much of the roadway is still only at pre-construction stage and could be used for the much safer, non-problematic Option A ,as could concrete and metal paraphernalia.]   

With regard to your concerns about toxic dust, I understand the RTA has previously advised you that potential health issues associated with the possible production of alum dust during construction were also examined during the formal environmental assessment stage of the project. The environmental impact statement prepared in 2004 concluded that the raw mineral that had the potential to be exposed during construction would be alunite. However, if found, alunite is non-toxic and would pose no risk to the community.  [The RTA has deliberately and demonstrably LIED.  The Alum Mountain is the largest deposit of alunite in the western hemisphere.  As is the case with other acid sulphate rock, freshly pulverised alunite (synonyms: alum stone and alum, hence the use of the term ‘alum dust’) forms sulphuric acid on coming into contact with water, including bodily fluids.  Mining era assays of Bulahdelah Mountain’s alunite provide evidence that its SO₃ content ranges between approximately 32% to 36.76%.  Conservatively, 30% of the construction-produced alunite dust (aka alum stone/alum dust) inhaled by the people in the township – including some 600 children in local schools – would be dissolvable as sulphuric acid within their bodies. The RTA also lied, by omission, in regard to other toxic dust. The following facts in relation to the massive quantities of crystalline silica dust which have been and are intended to be inflicted on the people in Bulahdelah have been published at RTA Current Activities from 21-1-2011: http://bulahdelahbypass.wordpress.com/r2-rta-current-activities-from-21-1-2011/  

The fourteenth RTA/Baulderstone blasting of the mid-slopes of the Alum Mountain, Bulahdelah, took place on Tuesday, 5th July 2011. This is blasting of ‘Cut 2′, ‘Sandstone Cutting’, where the RTA intends to later locate a rock crushing plant. Drilling, blasting and crushing of sandstone [and rhyolite] rock all produce silica dust.

Excerpt from Workers Health Centre FACT SHEET:-

What is silica dust?   Silica is the main component in sand and in rocks like sandstone and granite.  Many workplaces are not aware that common building products such as clay bricks, concrete, tiles and fibro cement products contain silica.  Silica dust is usually created when such building products, sandstone or rocks are cut, drilled or worked on in a way that creates fine particles of silica in the air. It is breathing in this crystalline form of silica that causes silicosis.

Excerpts from Silicosis and Its Effects:-

·         What is Silicosis?

Silicosis is a disease of the lungs caused by the inhalation of crystalline silica, or quartz.  This disease is not genetic, caused by an abnormal gene, but is acquired through the inhalation of minute, airborne particles of silica.  The micron-sized silica dust, which is ingested through the normal breathing process, coats the inner lining of the lungs (alveoli) and forms fibrous scar tissue that reduces the lungs’ ability to extract oxygen from the air.  [Note: a micron is about one twenty-five thousandth of an inch; a human hair averages 40 microns.]

·         Is there a cure?

The answer, quite frankly, is “NO”.  There is no cure for Silicosis.  The only solution is prevention.

·         What are the Effects?

Depending on age, physical condition, physical activity or work requirements, the development of the disease may produce a variety of effects in different people. Only one thing is certain—continued exposure to silica dust eventually kills even the strongest. Silica exposure can cause autoimmune diseases such as lupus, scleroderma, and vasculitis.  It can also cause silicosis, kidney disease, lung cancer, tuberculosis, and other airways diseases.  Environmental exposure to silica can occur in workers and bystanders in many industries, including agriculture, construction, and potters. ISN’. ^{[Ref: Sclero.org – International Scleroderma Network (ISL) Diseases Caused by Silica Exposure.]}  

And so, your statement that ‘if found alunite is non-toxic and would pose no risk to the community’ is misleading to say the very least, and the dangers of breathing in silica dust not mentioned at all!]

I hope this has been of assistance. For more information please contact Mr Bob Handley, Major Projects Implementation Manager, at the RTA on (02) 4924 0289.  [Why would I bother? Your governments have demonstrated beyond all doubt that you intend to continue with the rape of this mountain and the ruination of the town no matter what anyone says or does –  Dr. Vickie Grieves, a renowned Worimi elder and foremost academic, rang the Federal Environment Minister to personally ask him to stop this destruction, and he completely ignored her! This matter needs to be dealt with by the federal government and/or the UN and the custodians and lovers of Sacred Alum Mountain will NEVER give up the struggle to save this unique environment from your unthinkable and totally unacceptable destruction.]

Yours sincerely

Jaymes Boland-Rudder

Chief of Staff

Level 35, Governor Macquarie Tower, 1 Farrer Place, Sydney NSW 2000

Ph: (61 2) 9228 5271  Fax: (61 2) 9228 5499  Email: office@gay.minister.nsw.gov.au

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From: Graham, Peter

To: maureen brannan

Sent: Friday, July 01, 2011 3:39 PM

Subject: RE: Bulahdelah - call for Inquiry into a fraudulent claim by Peter Garrett [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Dear Ms Brannan

I tried calling you a couple of times today but was unable to reach you. Please call me if you would like to discuss this matter.  (I require your responses to be in writing please.)

Yours sincerely

Peter Graham

A/g Director, Indigenous Heritage Law Reform
Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities
GPO Box 787  Canberra  ACT  2601www.environment.gov.au
02 6274 1788 / 0419 422 017

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RECEIPIENTS:   

Peter Garrett  (The minister who originally allowed this desecration to take place by fraudulently denying the mountain was sacred)

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell

NSW Minister for Roads Duncan Gay

NSW Minister for Environment & Heritage Robyn Parker

NSW Minister for Central Coast Chris Hartcher

NSW Minister for Aboriginal Affairs Victor Dominello

NSW Attorney General Greg Smith

Malcolm Turnbull

Federal Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs

Federal Shadow Minister for Indigenous Heritage (why isn't this portfolio the responsibility of the Shadow Indigenous Affairs Minister???)

Federal Minister for Indigenous Affairs Jenny Macklin

Federal Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott

Federal Heritage Dept bureaucrat Rochelle Johnston

Federal Heritage Dept bureaucrat David Collett

Federal Environment Department bureaucrat Alistair Cockburn

Federal Environment Department bureaucrat Peter Graham

Federal Environment Department office worker Linda Baulch

If the sole purpose of the multi-million-dollar Large Hadron Collider was to find the Higgs Boson 'god' particle, then we've all been conned - they now tell us they'd already found it with the old collider in 2000.
I can think of a few better things governments should be spending tax payer's money on; not forcing the UN by lack of funding to pull out of Nepal, condemning one million already impoverished people to inevitable starvation, would be one.

The indigenous mind reflects the mind of God

Had a mini-revelation the other day.  I was watching Time Team, the popular archaeology show on ABC TV - it's always amazed me, the professionalism of these experts, that they can dig up a piece of pottery and because they have such in-depth knowledge of their subject, they can instantly frame around it the story of what life was like at that time;  what the people wore, their houses, their social structures and infrastructures - all from a tiny piece of pottery.  And then I thought how much MORE amazing were/are all culturally taught Aboriginal people (not just the elite few) who could instantly conjure up a complete picture of the past; what animals walked by, when, how many, what they did, where they were going etc etc, all from a few tracks in the sand!  [definition of 'intuition' ...  knowing what to expect based on a profound understanding and detailed knowledge of the world around you]. And more impressive still because it was contextualised within their entire world view, not just a very narrow slice of time and space that the archaeologist, after decades of university & field experience and the help of the Western world's technology, could envisage.

That revelation has since expanded into a more comprehensive understanding of how we came to be in this ‘us & them’, indigenous verses non-indigenous situation that has divided humanity for thousands of years. The Western world has been, to paraphrase a ‘60’s rock song, ‘murdered by the hand of the inevitable’ due to having severed its relationship with the living planet.  We were all indigenous once, all had a virtually identical relationship with nature, but humanity seemed to split around 5,000 years ago, and ‘specialisation’ occurred. Some people’s brains in the Western world ‘mutated’ and began to develop along a different track from the holistic relationship with Earth people had for 2 million years, to fragmenting knowledge into specialised segments, each one having the freedom to take their particular segment further than ever before. This as we know resulted in mankind being able to land on the moon, but indigenous people’s were in no way inferior because they did not diverge in this direction – they evolved as well only in different ways, continually developing varied and distinctive responses to the wide range of environments in which they lived.  I once heard that the part of the brain that stores information is much more developed in Aborigines than in Europeans, due presumably to the massive amounts of cultural information the Indigenous brains needed to store - this part of the brain may have atrophied in Europeans as the Western World placed most of that information in books and people had no need to retain it in their brains … again, having freed up massive amounts of time and energy having to encompass an entire culture, compartmentalised knowledge could surge ahead.

Very few of those specialists were able to understand the ‘bigger picture’. For example, Einstein was a mathematical genius but couldn’t boil and egg to save his life – all of his mental capacity was devoted to one very narrow segment of human endeavour.  All indigenous societies on the other hand  share a comprehension of their world in it’s entirety, including the parallel dimension of the metaphysical world, which is only barely understood in the West.  And because it has led to the Western world being cut-off from the whole, from their connection with Earth, they have been able to destroy it without thought, without understanding the consequences & without caring.

It can be argued therefore that indigenous cultures are superior to the Western one, in that they have sustained the Earth’s ecologies for millennia, whereas the alternate path has led to ecological catastrophe. 

Looking at it this way, it’s easier to understand how the tragic history of colonisation came about, with the invaders truly believing (and some still do) that they are far superior to the ‘primitive savage’. But like the ‘sorry day’ apology, it’s not about guilt - it’s about recognising how this all came to be, acknowledging past mistakes, and then starting to put things right, which means doing everything we can to help the world’s indigenous societies re-build and maintain their cultures and precious knowledge streams, thousands of years in the building and augmented every generation of sustainable land managers keenly observerving of nature, and currently being enhanced with validation and integration with science. We must do that for the sake of the planet, and for all our sakes.

The phenomena of indigenous holistic knowledge (‘pattern thinking’ as Mowaljarlai put it) was (inadvertently) expressed by Albert Einstein, when he stated:  “The Scientist’s religious feelings take the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, in comparison with it, the highest intelligence of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection.”  i.e., the indigenous mind, having an acute understanding of natural law and the knowledge of how to maintain it in harmony, is a much closer reflection of this 'higher intelligence' than any other people on Earth.

Open Letter to Julia Gillard re the current refugee crisis

(posted on the PM's website 12.5.11)

There's a lot of degraded ex-farmland in Australia, thousands of kilometers of country in my district alone that no-one wants to take responsibility for to rehabilitate back to productive use, either growing food or for wildlife habitat in areas where ecosystems are endangered.

One of the many options your government has in dealing with unauthorised arrivals, either by air or by sea, is to process them as quickly as possible on the mainland, and settle genuine refugees in permaculture villages of around 1000, in fenced and gated communities on a few hundred acres of unused land relatively close to towns.

Many refugees, especially from Asia, already have skills in food growing, and any permaculturalist worth their salt (Josh Byrnes of Gardening Australia being just one leading expert in the field) could draw you up a plan whereby the newest Australians can build their own earth-insulated homes (I myself have had plans drawn up to ABA standards for a 5 bedroom coursed adobe dwelling that can be owner-built and furnished for under $100,000) and become mostly self-sufficient in their own food requirements, within ten years, at which time they will be integrating well and contributing to the local community.

P/c models adapted to local conditions could be rolled out across rural, regional and remote communities all over Australia, especially Aboriginal ones in dire need of basic shelter and food, so that they can become self-reliant to a large degree....endangered plants and wildlife will benefit also as p/c integrates with bush tucker and the restoration of habitat.

Permaculture settlement models have been tried and tested for decades, evolving with the latest grass-roots technologies and integrating with indigenous wisdom, and have been proven to work well;  this is evidenced by the expanding number of successful ones in Australia and around the world. It would cost FAR less than off-shore detention and sending desperate souls to a living hell in a remote Malaysian prison for the rest of their lives.

If the government continues with its current asylum-seeker policy, when alternatives such as this are eminently viable, the UN criminal courts will have no option but to prosecute you for your cruelty and inhumanity towards some of the most traumatised and disadvantaged people on Earth. I personally believe it exposes very sick and depraved minds that would choose such cruel fates for asylum seekers, and that the political regimes that continue with it should be treated by psychiatric professionals.

 Maureen Brannan 905 Wilsons Road CLOYNA Q 4605  ph: 0427710523

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 (One of 80 Fact Sheets on Permaculture on Gardening Australia's website alone - the wealth of knowledge on p/c available on the internet is just phenomenal.)

Fact Sheet: Permaculture Paradise

Josh visits a permaculture paradise in Victoria

Presenter: Josh Byrne, 31/03/2007

David Holmgren and Su Dennett have transformed once degraded, blackberry infested paddocks into a bountiful hectare of orchards and vegie gardens. The couple moved to Hepburn, about two hours north west of Melbourne, 22 years ago to create a self sustaining environment.

Su devotes much of her time to the care of the animals, while David concentrates more on the botanical world. But what they are both doing is known as permaculture. David is a bit of a hero of mine because way back in the 70s he was one of the originators of the permaculture concept.

He believes the planet has got into a pretty serious state over the last 20 years and says “we really need to get moving on the sustainability front pretty seriously.” He sees permaculture as central to the redesign of everything - from the big picture stuff right down to the most basic ways of living and designing the environment.

The property is all about growing organic food and challenges how we think about waste by demonstrating reduction of consumption, reuse and recycling and getting the maximum return on effort.

David lets lots of plants go to seed in the garden, partly because of the huge fluctuations in temperature this year, but it's also part of the gardening approach. “We leave some things to go to seed so we can collect it, and also for some to re-seed naturally. We never sow parsley, silver beet and some lettuces come up wild. It does mean that you have excess plants, and that you never really get rid of weeds, you just end up with a better class of weed,” he says.

Su says the geese clean up the fallen apples, which are usually full of codling moth, or other pests. “That way we don't really need to have other pest control. They mow the grass as well, and also fertilise.”

But goose manure is not the only form of natural fertiliser for the fruit trees, David has also used a nitrogen fixer – an Australian acacia, Acacia floribunda, which fixes its own nitrogen out of the atmosphere. “When we cut it back hard, both for mulch and to feed the goats, it releases nitrogen that can feed the interplanted fruit trees."

A plum hedge, which has vigorous seedling plums, are also cut back hard in summer, and fed to the goats.

Most people see blackberries as a pretty serious weed and hard to control, but the goats seem to love it. According to Su, it's one of their preferred foods, so it can just be looked at as fodder.

Good water management is a critical part of permaculture. In true permi style David and Su have a number of systems to meet their water needs. They collect rainwater for house use, grey water for the garden, use some town supply, and also have a dam for apple culture and irrigation.

David says: “We use about 500,000 litres from the dam to grow food for maybe five to 10 people. That water use rate is way below the water that's used to produce food in the supermarket. Home gardeners, particularly if they are producing food, should have the right to be given a water allocation, just as farmers are, and then they can decide how they make use of that limited amount of water.”

The two principles that David would like to see adopted by people at home are to catch and store energy, in rainwater tanks, anything that's free flowing past or otherwise being wasted. The second is to use that to obtain a yield, produce something, or grow some food. That's the most important thing that people can do.

David believes that whether it’s called permaculture or not the principles behind it will inevitably become mainstream, as world oil supplies peak and there is a reduction in available energy. The necessities of climate change will also mean the redesign of society and low energy ways of living will become normal.

I want what Bess Price has for my children.
I want them to have the opportunity to learn all about the 60,000 year history of this continent, to learn about a truly sustainable, enduring culture and the opportunity to connect with the land in a soul deep and intellectually meaningful way.
But my non-indigenous children live in a country that puts NO VALUE on the First People's cultures, whose governments are actively destroying them in many cases, so will probably never have that opportunity.

Bulahdelah Bypass - Visitors Centre, Council minutes, Macdonals and Open Letter to NSW Tourism, Great Lakes Council & NSW & Federal Ministers

The myth of Indigenous ‘disadvantage’

From: mbrannan8@bigpond.com
To: mindgames@theaustralian.com.au (Soapbox)
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2011 14:44:52 +1000

The myth of Indigenous ‘disadvantage’

I was brought up in the greater conurbation of London in the 1950’s. If we were lucky, we had a week’s holiday once a year at the seaside – this was my only significant contact with nature.  In my ‘privileged’ girl’s grammar school, the only tuition I received of the natural world came from classroom lessons in geography and biology. When I came out to Australia as a young adult, I soon discovered that, compared to any traditionally-reared Aboriginal child, I was completely ignorant of the world around me.

So when I watched a TV program on remote Aboriginal school children’s ‘disadvantage’, I was bemused by the myths the media and governments continue to promulgate.  A social worker was on a beautiful tropical beach with a dozen laughing, exuberant children running around – no doubt they spent a lot of time on the beach and in the water, learning to fish and harvest the natural resources.  Her comment was:  “These are some of the most disadvantaged children in Australia,” referring to their Western educational opportunities.  I thought of my own schooling, trapped in a musty classroom all day every day. I thought of all the children living under the massive Asian pollution cloud who have never seen a blue sky or a rainbow, and millions of others around the world in slums and tenements, in cities and suburbs who live in man-made environments and never get the opportunity to interact with nature in any meaningful way. And it became obvious to me that those happy, healthy Aboriginal kids were in fact among the most privileged on Earth.

The Prime Minister recently gave the annual ‘Closing the Gap’ speech to parliament - her key point was that ‘all Australians will have the same opportunities’. Therein lies the fundamentally false paradigm that underpins every government policy on 'Indigenous education' (itself a false appellation – what they’re talking about is Western education for Indigenous people) Whereas all Indigenous Australians have the opportunity to learn everything about their own cultures as well as the Western & Eastern world cultures, non-Indigenous Australians do not have the same opportunity to be educated in an Aboriginal knowledge system.

Clearly it is non-Indigenous people who are disadvantaged, the exact opposite of what the government would like us to believe so they can continue to disrespect and not economically value these formidable cultures that have served humanity so well for tens of thousands of years and kept Australia's ecosystems thriving – if they did, no cultural Indigenous Australian would be living in poverty.

M. Brannan, Murgon Qld

(Maureen Brannan 905 Wilsons Road CLOYNA Q 4605 ph 04 277 10523)  

(It’s a bit over 400 words – please remove the section in red if its too much)

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If governments did respect and value Aboriginal cultures, there would not be the continued entrenched poverty and despair in the homelands as there is at present, worried sick as they are that they will be forced off their lands by the government's 'hub town' policy, and there would be virtually no suicides. The intervention has been a complete disaster - the government could have intervened by providing the remote communities with solar power, with training to repair their homes like Paul Pheleros' crew, with inexpensive earth-building programs, with permaculture gardens and as a triage measure, with bunk beds to get kids off the ground and off the dirty blankets that have caused ear infection and tragic deafness in so many Aboriginal kids. But they did none of this - they just sent in the army to conduct duplicate medicals on children and introduced wellfare quarantining, the absurd and repressive 'basics card' that forces welfare recipients to shop in supermarkets hundreds of kilometers away instead of growing their own food! ...and Aboriginal children are STILL experiencing a multitude of health problems caused by over-crowing and unhygenic living conditions, and are still committing suicide, now at an unprecedented rate, and the government is culpable. In my view, the federal government should be indicted in international criminal courts for their disastrous intervention into Aboriginal societies, and specifically for continuing to allow Aboriginal children to sleep in over-crowded dwellings, sharing on-the-ground bedding with many other children and with dogs and continuing to lose their hearing from totally avoidable ear infections that cannot be rapidly treated.

I have references to support all my arguments - I am also compiling an essential reading list for all Australian governments and councils, most of whom cannot even comprehend the publically revealed first layer of these multi-dimensional knowledge streams, 60,000 years in the building and accruing with every generation of sustainable land managers keenly observing nature, now being enhanced with Western science validation and integration.

The first is:  "Yothu Yindi - Finding Balance" by Mandawuy Yunupingu.)

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(Some past emails related to this subject)

From: maureen brannan [mailto:mbrannan8@bigpond.com]
Sent: Tuesday, 18 August 2009 11:31 AM
To: NT Min for Indigenous Policy; VIC Min for Aboriginal Affairs; NSW Min for Aboriginal Affairs; LGATSIP - SMTP; WA Min for Indigenous Affairs; Malcolm Turnbull; Kevin Rudd; Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister; SA Min for Aboriginal Affairs
Cc: EducationAndArts - SMTP; National Indigenous Times; National Indigenous Human Rights Congress; Koori Mail; Drew Hutton; Black/Green Solidarity List
Subject: Baby Slim shows the way

Message to the Prime Minister and Federal & State Ministers for Aboriginal Affairs:

The photo below (from Megan Lewis' Conversations with the Mob) is of 'Baby Slim' who began intensely studying this termite mound while his parents patiently watched on after a day's hunting - eventually he pulled out a lunki grub and promptly stuffed it in his mouth. I'm not sure if he'd previously observed people finding the grubs this way or he may have used his own observations ... either way it shows wonderful survival skills inherited from hundreds of generations of professional practitioners of sustainable land management. Can you imagine any non-Indigenous baby of this age# displaying such initiative, ingenuity, patience and observational powers? Yet his talents would NOT BE VALUED in your Western educational system; his proficiency in his native language, describing all the myriad plants and animals of his country, their connections, their life-cycles, the seasonal changes in flows of water and SO much more - NOT VALUED;  his highly evolved culture, stretching back to the beginnings of humanity - NOT VALUED;  its sophisticated totemic and kinship systems that ensure each and every member of the clan is nurtured throughout their lives by multiple carers - NOT VALUED.

This child may well begin his "education" in a Western school in another three years, maybe with a basic understanding of three or more different languages, knowing more about his natural environment than most of us will ever know - and be DENIGRATED by 'teaching professionals' because he can't spell 'cat'.*  He has the human right and should have the opportunity to learn everything about his country, his language and his culture ..... just what can a Western industrialised society teach him? Forcing him to adopt (ie assimilate into) a Western lifestyle is akin to cultural genocide. In fact the only reason he should learn English, as far as I can see, is to educate Westerners about his world.

You all desperately need to get some humility, show some respect for the inherent triple-bottom-line value of Indigenous cultures, acknowledge your past profound ignorance and assist Baby Slim and his people to restore their cultures and lifestyles, without interference^ apart from facilitating access to modern technologies that might help them, such as renewable energies, earthbuilding and re-cycled water aquaponic systems. Instead of closing down 'un-economic' remote communities, introducing a cultural maintenance payment for every Indigenous person who wishes to regain their inheritance and live on their homelands would be a good start.

 #  The stark polarity of our worlds is evident, considering any non-Aboriginal toddler would need to be fully clothed from head to toe, brimmed hat, shoes & socks and factor 50 sunscreen before venturing out into the desert sun - Baby Slim is perfectly adapted to his environment.

*   Comment by a remote school teacher on ABC TV

^   Taking decision-making powers away from government and restoring them to people on-the-ground was the very wise advice of our secular saint, Fred Hollows.

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From: "Maureen Brannan"
To: editor@koorimail.com 

Cc: news@nit.com.auSubject: Open letter to Mal Brough
Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2007 05:05:39 +0000
Open letter to Mal Brough
Senior legal opinion from the Greens has determined that the current intervention laws that you are pushing through your “rubber stamp” senate, are unconstitutional. I believe they would also be found to be discriminatory and illegal under International law.

“Message Stick” covered a story on the CDEP scheme last week, some positive experiences with it, providing fulfilling and culturally appropriate work in remote communities and townships where there are no regular jobs in the mainstream workforce to be found. My own research found many positive and exceptional outcomes from the scheme. It has worked exceptionally well, so why is it being dismantled and the participants told to “find ‘real’ jobs”?  If there is a problem with corruption in administering the scheme, surely it would be best to deal with that specific problem rather than dismantle the entire scheme. The same applies to the Permit System. Your justification for abolishing it - 'because it’s not working – alcohol and drugs are getting in anyway' is utterly ridiculous. These specific problems can also be fixed with targeted changes. So now it wont be just rivers of grog, it’ll be a tsunami of grog, drugs, petrol & pedophiles running through these communities. One would be excused in thinking that this is what the government intends.  It is not just immoral and illogical, it is probably illegal to unnecessarily put these communities at so much more risk of harm.

Bush Telegraph recently covered a story about an Aboriginal woman who has been gathering bush tucker from the mangroves behind the Royal Darwin Hospital for the past 20 years (below) to help Indigenous patients recover. She collects 30-40 different bush foods - in one outing, she may collect 200 shells & 24 crabs along with whatever fruits and vegetables are in season, enough to feed the 50 patients she looks after.

Mr  Brough, would this constitute a “real job’ in your view? How many white people do you think could do this job?

Real jobs would involve re-building their culture, restoring health and happiness to their people and looking after the biodiversity of the land, as they had done so well for tens of thousands of years. Unfortunately Western agricultural practices have all but wiped out the natural bounty that had sustained them for millennia. Real jobs would involve working with environmentalists in the massive effort of land restoration and re-vegetation needed everywhere, and traditional Indigenous methods will help enormously in that endeavour.

If there’s one thing worse than child sex abuse, it would be a government who cynically uses that tragedy to implement an agenda that leads to cultural extinction.

Maureen Brannan, Murgon

PS: While I was up-dating my government mailing list, I noticed: > There are parliamentary secretaries for every main portfolio except Indigenous Affairs - does this reflect the importance that governments place on Indigenous issues?  > all the indigenous policy statements on govt websites appear to be assimilationist, none are encouraging Aboriginal people to regain their own cultures;  > the title 'Aboriginal Development' sounds slightly racist and demeaning to me - don't you think Aborigines have developed enough after 60,000 years of successful habitation of this continent? > Aboriginal Reconciliation is a misnomer – there has never been conciliation with the usurpers of their lands, so they cannot be re-conciled.

Bushtucker woman gathers for health
By Alice Plate and Michael Mackenzie

Friday, 03/08/2007
Ever tried to get your daily food from mangroves? That's what Pat Gamanangga has been doing for the past 13 years. Darwin Royal Hospital's resident bushtucker expert loves to eat as much as she can and every Thursday she collects it for Aboriginal patients.

Pat collects enough food to feed about 60 patients and she's also working to preserving her knowledge. Pat has been teaching fellow health workers and young people from remote communities about bushtucker and how to collect it.

She collects periwinkles, yams, clams, mangrove worms and mud mussels from the mangroves near the Darwin hospital.

"It's good for diarrhoea, flu, fever, itchy throat. All this bushtucker is just normal to us and it's cheaper than in the supermarket."

"The Islanders they grew up with bushtucker and when they in hospital they looking for a special natural taste. Good for their tongue and curing their bodies. Good for diabetics and kidney problems. Patients see me and they feel free from the suffering pains."

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...and finally a piece of satire (satirical because despite often mouthing platitudes about being so proud of Australia having the longest continuing cultures in the world, you are in many instances actively destroying them and otherwise complicit in state governments doing the same): 

A 'satirical' message from Julia Gillard to the Indigenous Peoples of Australia

In my government's new paradigm, we hereby make this solemn oath: We will stop telling you what to do and we will start asking you what you want and need to address your social problems and restore peace, health and harmony in your communities, as they were before Australian governments nearly destroyed your cultural structures entirely and wiped out your skillfully managed diversity of bush foods and medicines virtually everywhere by land clearing. We will listen carefully, and then we will facilitate whatever you say is required to achieve this, be it supplying remote communities with the latest renewable energy technologies, practical earth building programs or anything else at all to help with the reconstruction effort. There will be no more demeaning ‘welfare’ payments to Aboriginal people who wish to reclaim their inheritance and restore their cultures, contemporaneously or traditionally – there will now be unconditional funding of each and every person (including non-Indigenous) in any way involved in cultural restoration, in recognition that it would involve a comparatively miniscule amount of government funds. If you wish to re-establish your inter-connected grid of Songlines and migration trails (mostly still existing within the stock route system which usurped them) that can easily be arranged by according them the same legal status as the stock routes, i.e. free access to walkers and riders - if its good enough for cattle, surely it is good enough for the nation's First People! If you want to prioritise teaching your children their own languages over English, that too can be arranged through school curricula. In fact, as long as you don't break any laws, you do whatever you need to do to keep the priceless legacy of humanity's longest continual scientific and metaphysical knowledge streams safe and enduring into the future. Needless to say, all your most precious and sacred cultural places will immediately come under legal protection from harm, beginning with the Worimi's iconic Bula Dilla, currently under threat of complete desecration by unnecessary development. Keep in touch … and let me know if you would like me to sign a treaty to legitimise our pledge. I hope your new year really does bring a bran nue dae for your long-suffering peoples.

(Maureen Brannan 905 Wilsons Road CLOYNA Qld 4605 ph: 04 277 10523)