Native Titile: country, life and me!

I have something on my mind and it is creating a bit of havoc in my thinking therefore I would like to share my thoughts so that I can find some clarity. Recently I went to a Native Title Seminar. I was excited because it was my first Native Title Seminar and I can see will not be my last. Before I begin let me just say I love my country. Balladong country that is. When I go home I feel like a different person, I stand on country and breathe in air that makes my soul sing. I have trouble expressing how I feel because it is such a passionate experience, and I know that I am home. The sense of belonging is incredible, everything around me is extraordinarily acute. Birds are not just making noise they are singing, to me. I hear the sounds of insects and I see the tracks of animals and I smell the earth with such awareness that I feel as though I transform into something or someone else. Being on country brings me to life. I live and breathe the earth, sky and waters of the balladong. It is an intense experience and I yearn for country.

Having expressed my love for all the world to see let me get back to my dilemma. Here I was soaking up the experience of a Native Title seminar thinking I would learn something fantastic and I was sorely disappointed. What I learnt is that mainstream government continue to enforce assimilationist perspectives, have no respect for Aboriginal people and continue to attempt to remove us from our land. I say this because the recent Noongar Native Title Claim is creating a bit of havoc with the new proposal put to government by a handful of representative claimants. Until now I have sat back and watched the play unfold. However, it is now getting to the point where I feel I have to express myself. During a Q & A panel session at the Native Title Seminar I articulated a question about cultural negotiation protocols. One of the panelists said he did not understand the question? Interesting isn't it that a public servant working in Native Title does not understand cultural negotiation protocols. If he understood this he would have understood my question. Let me also say that I was amazed that he did not understand the question and my response was to attempt to explain what it was I was asking, however I could see that he really wasn't interested in what I was asking and he became extremely defensive in his following response. The point that I make is that Aboriginal people have their own way of negotiating. 99% of the time these negotiation protocols are misunderstood or ignored or worse dismissed. Anthropologists are brought in to assist in the process of learning about the culture that mining companies and government wish to negotiate with, however going on the seminar that I witnessed I can honestly say we (anthropologists) are not getting our information across clearly or our government is ignoring our recommendations? The other point that I noticed and became very aware of is that they make no apologies for not understanding because they seem to think that their way is the only way forward. Why is it that we suddenly have a Premier and Cabinet who are so disrespectful that they pay lip service to Aboriginal people and make no commitment what so ever to closing the gap. And the current government has no intention of even trying to close the gap from what I can see.

I say this because in the current political climate basic human rights such as housing, education, health and employment services have suddenly become leverage for mining company negotiations that the State government endorse. My question is why are basic services that are a right of every other Australian leverage for negotiations with the mining and resources industry in the first place when by rights these services should be the responsibility of our state and federal governments. Employing locally, I would have thought is good business practice because it is cheaper than FIFO's even after having to put money up front for training and skills development. Surely this is best practice for any business and should never be a negotiation tactic for access to country. My second area of concern is the Noongar Native Title proposal that I mentioned above. My understanding of the the proposal on the negotiation table is that we relinquish our rights to Native Title in return for a 60 million dollar pay out plus 10 million per year for 30 years with the proviso that we extinguish our rights to land. Now please be aware that this is my take on the deal based on what I have read in the newspaper and what I have heard. I along with many other Noongar people haven't been privy to the full document or seen even a small part of the document. Why you ask? Good question. My concern here is that the proposal should be publicly available so that all Noongar's have access to the document. My question is why is it not a public document? The negotiation affects all Noongar people not just those who are members of SWALSC. We should be able to discuss the proposal with our Elders before they make a decision. The Elders should know how the rest of the community feel about the proposal. It is their job to talk to all community members and open the discussion before making decisions. That is how negotiation protocols for Aboriginal societies work. All decisions about a community are communally discussed prior to the negotiation taking place with 'others'. This has not happened and this is why people are so angry.

Sovereignty is all we have left. It is is what maintains our cultural integrity and it is what allows me to stand on my country and cleanse my soul of a world I am forced to traverse in order to exist. It is not something that I can relinquish despite the fact that I do not live on my country. As much as I love the Balladong the hazards of modern life has forced me and others like me to move to the city in search of work. This is not just an Aboriginal thing, non-Aboriginal people move from rural and remote areas in search of work. It is a symptom of modernity. At the present time I do what I have to do to survive in the modern world and I will make my life as comfortable as possible because I live under the same laws as everyone else. 

However there is my Aboriginal lore that I belong to and it is in my blood running through my veins and waiting for me to retire back on country. You see this is not something that is a physical thing that you can see and categorise or label. It is not for the world to see. It is a private internal mechanism that I was born with. It is who I am.

Thank you for listening and for allowing me to share my passion.

Life is good!

Oldest and youngest at the Salt Lakes, on the Balladong

Two middle children, on Balladong

Evening calls

Beautiful...sigh!

Poetry

The Balladong

Land

Culture

Life

History

Dreaming

Connecting

Belonging

Identity

Passion

Love

Nature

Mystery

Mother

Lore

Language

Healing

Tears of my soul

Pillage and raped

Renewed vitality

Return whence I came

Home!

By: Barbara Bynder

February 2012

The Antarctic Ozone Hole -- From Discovery to Recovery, a Scientific Jou...

Amazing how a new job makes you feel a little invigorated. That's not to say that I am totally bouncing off the walls and grinning from ear to ear. I am not by nature that energetic, although those of you who know me would beg to differ. And that statement brings me to the thought of how we think about ourselves, or more to the point how we see ourselves. I have an interesting view of the world. My oldest and dearest friend says that 'I am special' which makes me laugh each time she says that because I can never tell if she is being sarcastic or not. I do however, know what she means. You see I don't think like other people and I have yet to meet a lot of people who do think like me. I have met a few people who think like I do but they are few and far between. This difference in thinking tends to put me on the outer in social groups and with my family and can lead to a selective process when interacting in group situations or meeting new people. It is not that I don't trust people, it is more that I can get bored very quickly with trivial types of conversations and then I start to day dream which means I don't listen well then people get annoyed because they think I don't care. And they are right I probably don't really care that much. However, if you put me in the arena of social justice, human rights and environmental protection you will have my full attention. That's not to say that I don't know how to have fun, I do it is just that I have fun differently to the way in which others perceive the concept of fun.

For example, I find vocalising my thoughts on important issues fun. Yes that's right, fun. I get a buzz out of the challenge of changing someone else's thoughts about certain issues. I like the challenge of providing a different viewpoint that others can understand and grasp. It is amazing when the 'penny' drops and people start to understand a concept from a different perspective. They become aware and sometimes they become self aware. For example I have had a lot of complaints lately about how hot the sun is. Well folk's I know its a boring topic but the reality is we have a hole in the ozone layer situated over the antarctic (south pole) which is located very close to Western Australia and each year it gets hotter and hotter during the summer months in the land down under. And this year we are burning, sometimes literally. Recently a friend of mine was sitting in the passenger seat of her car with a clear plastic bottle of water between her legs. It was a hot day in Perth on this particular day, the temperature was rising towards 40 degrees. My friend said that she felt a sharp pain like a beesting on her leg. When she looked down she saw that the sun had radiated through windscreen of the car then through the plastic water bottle which conducted the heat like a magnifying glass and burnt a small hole in her jeans onto her leg. Amazing story it is and it just goes to show you that what we do to our planet really is important. On the same day another person actually complained about how hot it was even in his office. I mentioned the hole in the ozone layer and he laughed. After a few seconds he stopped laughing, had a silent moment and then said 'you're probably right'. I didn't lecture him, I just mentioned the ozone layer and in between his initial response and his discomfort in the heat he thought about it. See the point is we should stop complaining and start thinking why? Why is it so hot? And why is it getting hotter every year in WA? We should not only ask these questions we should seek the answers? For it is only then will we fully understand that our carbon footprint makes a huge impact on our world. And we need to understand how the ozone layer works. A lot of people can say ozone layer but they really don't understand what it does. And for those of you who need clarity in simplistic terms it filters the suns rays so that we don't fry, that is when it is fully functional. At the moment it is not fully functional because we put a hole in it. Global action taken in 1998 has stabilised the hole but it has not repaired the hole therefore the earth continues to heat up. You see we haven't repaired the hole we have only stopped destroying the ozone layer by stabilising the hole.

So when will we learn. Now would be a good time because I am tired of hearing people complain about how hot it is. It is our own fault because we are not heeding the advice of our environmental specialists. We are not listening. I for one think it is time to start listening and stop complaining. Lets do something positive about it. Say it with me now 'the OZONE LAYER filters out the heat of the sun's rays'. See that wasn't so hard now was it. Remember that. 

On that note I will sign off because I am hot and need to go cool off in the night air.

I found this fabulous little video that will help you understand what is happening to our environment for those of you who don't like to read.

Enjoy.

Life is good!