Rough passage
03.04.2007
Queensland's white environmental establishment has sidelined traditional owners in the quest
to protect the wild rivers of Cape York, writes Tony Koch
A FUNCTION at Brisbane's plush Stamford Heritage Plaza hotel staged last Friday night by the Wilderness Society to celebrate with, and congratulate, the Beattie Government on legislation declaring four rivers in remote Cape York would be protected as wild rivers was upstaged by three young Aborigines.
The trio, from Kowanyama on the Staaten River on western Cape York, included a girl dressed as a galah to get the message across that the event was not a gala dinner but a collection of galahs.
That is the explanation given by the group leader, Shaun Edwards, a passionate and articulate young man who decided that, as ``white southerners'' were not listening to the objections of community elders, he would take the protests to ``the galahs' nest''.
Throughout the Gulf of Carpentaria and Cape York in Queensland there are scores of creeks and river systems that form the lifeblood of the region. This includes opportunities for future economic development.
``I am a young member of the Koko Berra native title group from the Staaten River in central western Cape York Peninsula,'' Edwards says in his quiet tone.
``My elders and our people have become more and more worried about the takeover of our homelands by the Wilderness Society because they made an election deal with the Queensland Government.
``Neither the Wilderness Society nor the Government asked the Koko Berra people or the other Aboriginal communities of the cape what our views were on their wild rivers laws; they were just presented to parliament as a foregone conclusion.
``My people and the Cape York Land Council have written many letters to the Government and have made clear to the Wilderness Society that we are opposed to any restrictions being placed on our ability to exercise our rights and to use our lands for our future sustenance without proper negotiations with our people. All these letters were completely ignored.''
So Edwards and the two girls set themselves up outside the hotel entrance last Friday night, handing out pamphlets to Wilderness Society members and asking them why they were supporting laws that hurt Aborigines and if they had ever met ``a blackfella from the cape''. It became embarrassing. Acting Premier Anna Bligh was guest speaker at the event, laying it on thickly about how the Queensland Government had done a great thing in delivering the wild rivers legislation and thereby fulfilling an election commitment made by Peter Beattie.
She even commented to Wilderness Society arrivals that it was probably the first time any of them had to cross a picket line.
``It was a bit daunting,'' Edwards says. ``Here we were in our first political protest, taking on the masters of protest. I used to watch these guys on the evening news, chained to bulldozers, perched high in trees and struggling with the police.
``But now it was their turn to be protested against. Well, apparently they are no different from any organisation confronted with a protest: they got the hotel management to get the police to remove these troublesome blackfellas from their function. The Wilderness Society campaign director, Alec Marr, was one of the first to arrive and we handed him a brochure saying we were unhappy with the lack of consultation, and the smiles on his group turned to anger and embarrassment.''
Edwards says he and his two colleagues handed out brochures to guests as they arrived and asked them if they realised their donations were not helping Cape York but were being used to override traditional owners. The brochures had devastatingly simple messages:
* ``Aboriginal people of Cape York Peninsula have cared for and protected our lands, seas and waterways. To this day, Cape York Peninsula remains a pristine wilderness and a unique domain of global significance.
* ``We, the traditional owners of Cape York, are offended that the Wilderness Society has not consulted with us on the wild rivers legislation they are so vigorously promoting.
* ``Almost all the rivers in Cape York contemplated in this legislation are on Aboriginal land, yet no one asked us.
* ``The Wilderness Society has no mandate from traditional owners to advocate for, or support, this proposed wild rivers legislation.
* ``The Wilderness Society must cease all activities that override the wishes of the traditional owners of Cape York on this issue.
* ``We call on the membership and supporters of [the Wilderness Society] to support our aspirations on this issue and show due respect that Cape York indigenous people have a right to be consulted on all issues affecting our country.
* ``The Wilderness Society is not listening to our concerns.
* ``Some people in [the Wilderness Society] have an arrogant view about consultation with traditional owners. According to their campaign director, Lyndon Schneiders, consultation is `an exercise in futility' and `a long suicide note'.
* ``The Wilderness Society's wild rivers policies threaten to override the traditional owners in managing and protecting our country and undermine our native title rights and interests. We utterly reject this pursuit.''
Edwards says the superior attitude of the Wilderness Society is clearly demonstrated by the group's protest when he was approached by society campaigner Anthony Esposito.
``His approach was to the effect that the Wilderness Society would never do anything that was not in the best interests of the indigenous people of Cape York,'' Edwards says. ``Those words said it all. I told him that it was not about anyone doing what was best for us. The days of people doing what was best for us are over.
``Our elders have spent their whole lives trying to explain this -- and here it is -- happening still.
``I can understand the discomfort of Esposito. This legislation was cooked up by him and Alec Marr long before anybody had the decency or manners to explain even why it was needed. My response was simple: our elders do not want this and nor do I.
``How can I put it more simply than this? We want recognition of our cultural and economic needs first, and then we can talk about wild rivers. We want our rivers to remain protected as they have been for thousands of years.
``All these rivers are on Aboriginal land, and that is why they are wild and unspoiled. But any legislation setting new rules has to be on terms that are agreed by my people, not forced on us because of some sweetheart election preference deal cooked up with the Beattie Government, who the Wilderness Society has wrapped around their little fingers.''
That the protection of wild rivers was a deal organised with the Queensland Labor Government is no secret. MPs from Beattie down openly admit it and wear it as a badge of honour that they have delivered.
However, the only section it has appeased are members of the Wilderness Society who, in the main, live thousands of kilometres south of the river systems in question and will seldom, if ever, visit them.
But the people to whom they are life itself, local Aboriginal communities, cattle graziers and established leasehold properties and mining and prospecting companies, do not want a bar of the legislation. They say it restricts what they can do on their own land -- what they can build close to rivers -- and what businesses (such as aquaculture and tourism) they can develop.
But the Queensland Government, it appears, is deaf to any view other than that of the Wilderness Society. The state's Natural Resources and Water Minister Craig Wallace told parliament in February that the declaration of four Cape York rivers, the Staaten, Settlement Creek, Morning Inlet and the Gregory, as wild ``is a historic milestone in protecting Queensland's natural heritage for the benefit of current and future generations''.
``These proposals have been consulted upon for over 13 months and, where possible, stakeholder views have been taken on board,'' Wallace said.
``The bill delivers on the Beattie Government's commitment to declare these wild rivers. This will end the uncertainty and allow people in these areas to get on with their lives and businesses. Local communities can now explore the opportunities that a wild river declaration brings, such as marketing clean and green exports and ecotourism ventures.
``These communities will also benefit from the good quality water as well as cultural heritage and recreational values that will be retained by our declaration. All Queenslanders will benefit from the environmental and scientific values retained in these areas.''
Beattie knows the seriousness of the objection from local landholders and traditional owners but his adherence to the wishes of the Wilderness Society has won out.
He has been lobbied personally by Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson, a most strident opponent of the legislation. And at a State of Origin football match he was asked politely by Kowanyama resident and young Australian of the year Tania Major if he would at least hold up the declaration of her community's river, the Staaten, because it was not really a Cape York river at all. She reported at the time that he smiled and agreed to do just that. Major learned a valuable lesson that night: beware the Beattie promise accompanied by the smile.
The situation has escalated to black v green, groups who invariably find themselves on the same side in a debate or legal battle. Perhaps the winner can be gauged by the end to the ``galah dinner'' on Friday night.
The Wilderness Society had invited the Brisbane Council of Elders to the bash to give their traditional greeting and blessing. When the elders arrived, their leader, Aunty Val Coolwell, hugged the three protesters, asking what they were doing. They also asked if the trio had been invited to the dinner and were told they were not, to which Coolwell said she would ``fix that up''.
However, she was unsuccessful, and when the Brisbane elders saw the three youngsters being hassled by police and hotel officials, they chose to join them on the footpath outside the function, handing out pamphlets. They refused to go inside or perform the greeting.
``The elders joined with us and Aunty Val then shut the whole thing down and led us from the scene, and we spent the next two hours talking with the aunties over dinner in a restaurant,'' Edwards says. ``Their support and solidarity was something I will never forget. All I do know is that if we have to have an all-out confrontation with arrogant people like those who are currently running the Wilderness Society, then we will.''
