A Visit to the Djab Warrang Embassy

Images from a flying visit to the Djab Warrang Embassy in western Victoria.

Despite ongoing discussions, the duplication of the Great Western Highway is still earmarked to pass through Djab Warrang country, destroying many trees, including a sacred 800-year old birthing tree.

Protesters, led by traditional Djab Warrang owners, have been camping at the site to protect these trees for almost 18 months, as court action plays out. They are demanding the highway be re-routed around the trees and away from sacred Aboriginal sites. The Embassy is calling for support on the ground, as well other forms of assistance.

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Rally at Origin Energy AGM: Don't Frack the NT

Traditional land owners from the Northern Territory descended on Warrang, Sydney, today, to voice their opposition against fracking on their homelands. Around 200 people showed up at a rally in Martin Place to signal their support.

The rally and visit by traditional owners coincided with an AGM for Origin Energy, who plan to begin fracking at the Beetaloo sub-basin, south east of Darwin.

Protesters marched from Martin Place to Angel Place, where the AGM was being conducted. Several traditional owners attended the meeting, where they spoke out against Origin’s plans, which endangers traditional lands and water, as well as sacred sites and the health of numerous Aboriginal communities.

The rally was organised by SEED.

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Extinction Rebellion Protest - Spring Action, Take Back the Streets

Around 500 protesters took to the streets today in Sydney to demand action on climate change. They marched under the Extinction Rebellion banner, a loosely affiliated global movement aimed at using disruption as a tactic to leverage greater political action on the environment.

Today’s rally marched from Belmore Park near Central Station to Broadway, where protesters set up a pink water tank in the middle of the street. Several people had chained themselves inside. They were later cut free and arrested by police. Slogans on the outside of the tank read, ‘Water is Life’ and ‘Blood of the Earth’.

In the meantime, dozens of other arrests were made by a large contingent of heavily kitted riot squad members and police. Many of those arrested were elderly, including Martin Wolterding, a 75-year old environmental scientist, who was put in a wrist lock and dragged to a waiting van. It’s not known what charges were laid, although several draconian anti-protest laws around Australia either have recently been passed, or are about to be introduced.

The march ended in Central Park where protesters peacefully dispersed. A week of action has been planned by Extinction Rebellion.

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Portraits: Justice for Bowraville

A few impromptu portraits of some of the family members of the three Bowraville children who went missing from an Aboriginal community in 1990-91.

Their disappearance and murders have yet to be fully investigated. A protest was held today at Sydney’s Town Hall to demand justice.

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Protest: Justice For Bowraville - No More Delays

Around thirty years after the disappearance of three young Aboriginal children from the northern NSW town of Bowraville, families gathered today at Sydney’s Town Hall to demand that authorities relaunch the investigation and retrial of a man suspected of abducting and murdering the children.

The families are calling on the NSW Attorney General, Mark Speakman, to act on promises to initiate legislation that would facilitate the retrial after attempts earlier this year failed. Six months after the recommendations of an inquiry into such legislation, the Attorney General has yet to respond. The families vow to continue their fight until justice is served.

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Museum of Fleas

Images from last night’s ‘The Museum of Fleas’, a cabaret show of music, dance, poetry, performance and art at the Imperial Hotel in Erskinville, as part of Sydney Fringe 2019.

The event was produced by Rogers & Urquhart and was MC’d by Vashti Hughes. Performers included Paloma Negra, Luke Rogers, Peter Urquhart, Sister Ursuline, Marguerite Montes, Niche X Sentii, Charles Freyberg and Alison Marshall. Painting, photography and video by John O’Driscoll, Glenn Lockitch and Roger Foley Fogg.

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Global Climate Strike

As part of the Global Climate Strike, around 100,000 people, mostly students and young people turned up at the Domain in Sydney yesterday to demand action on human induced-climate change.

Hundreds of thousands rallied around Australia and millions around the world as part of a global student-led movement against persistent refusals by governments and big corporations to make structural changes that will ensure the reduction of CO2 emissions and the protection of the planet.

Climate change impacts the poor and disenfranchised in the first instance. Aboriginal and First Nations peoples are often at the forefront of the impacts of environmental degradation. Pacific Islanders stand to be the first to see their entire homelands inundated with rising sea waters. And those who live in poverty are the most likely unable to effectively respond against such change.

Earlier than usual bush fires and crippling winter droughts do not bode well for this coming summer in Australia.

The rally was organised by Students Strike 4 Climate.

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