sea bed mining, page-106

Dillinja

A long post...covering much of the ground that's been covered before on these threads.

The Song Lines- the Totemic Anscestors of the Anindilyakwan made all the seascape...therefor it is all sacred to them (not to you or me but to them). But this is not just about the Song Lines it's also about ownership of the Seascape. While Australian and Nt Law does not recognise the TO's ownership at present GOT's incursion has been the first to challenge their ownership in the practical sense. The pursuit of Native Title and beyond that Sea Rights (and I know the comeback re the latter is that it will be pushing a barrow full of the proverbial up a steep hill) is the ultimate goal of the TO's.

If ownership is established it will not just be placating a small group of protesting TO's it will be accomodating the owners of the place. Just as the GE's hold inaliable freehold title of the Archipelago down to the inter-tidal zone gives them the power of veto in the here and now on land.

Not only, if GOT gets to the mining or even drilling stage, will the exclusions zones be a compromise, under the legislation they will be a fait accompli.

It's not impossible to justify a total ban, particularly on environmental grounds. My own personal view is that a geography such as that covered by GR's seabased EL's is somewhere that should be turned to as a last resort i.e. after land based mn is depleted to the extent that if the utilisation of that mineral is still needed for human commerce, then you rip the living beJesus out of what is essentially a reaonably pristine seascape.

I recognise that rulings go gainst TO's. I mean to say the NT Govt sanctioned the alteration to the course of the Macarthur River to accomodate mining.

Don't demean (well you can off course and you already have) what the TO's do in fighting GR as posturing...read their letter to the CM of the NT, September 2010 to see for yourself their palpable concerns, and their determination to fight GOT, or for that matter any others bpursuing seabed mining in the Gulf.

Money makes the Mainstream go 'round: very much a sound generalisation for the Mainstream, but there are many notable exceptions of those who have put, and continue to place, belief and principle above money. However that generalisation doesn't hold up re the World View and behavioural practices of the Anindilyakwan. Money was on the table for both Winchelsea and Connection and gOT offered Royalties to the TO's if they ceased their opposition to sea bed activity. The TO's have also placed the Southern Leases on Groote proper into moratorium in response to Gemco's EL application and there was money on the table there too. Your comeback may well be that the money offered wasn't enough to broker agreement.

From my own personal experience here I don't think the TO's of the current or the next couple of generations will agree to exploration and mining no matter how much is laid on the table. And of course at the moment in Kakadu a traditional owner there, the only cliving custodian of targeted country by a uranium mining co. has refused billions to keep his ancestory intact.

It's pretty typical, in fact overwhelmingly typical of Westerners, and this case Mainstream Australians, to see the "everybody has their price" argument as human nature; mainly because we are the interactionally dominant culture, not just here in Australia but on the planet. But it's not human nature, other cultures are hot wired differently. Ultimately, as with much of your argument, and mine too for that matter, time will tell; but in the here and now money isn't talking re the TO's response to GOT...or for Gemco for that matter.

The TO's here are quite capable of keeping food in their bellies without money...they did it for thousands of years in the past and the skills essentially remain.

The Perth brewery scenerio does not equate to here. The Groote Eylandters were only rounded up by the Missionaries in 1946. There are scores of people still alive who were literally born in the bush; my wife being one. There is unbroken lineage in Ceremonial belief and practice. Mortuary Ceremonies occur for every death and Initiation Ceremonies still occur, in fact one is ongoing as I write. And Ceremonial Law rules the roost here, although Mainstream Law impinges. One of the complaints of Anindilyakwan people is that they often get punished for crimes twice (if the crime is covered by both the Mainstream and Ceremonial Law), once by the Mainstream and when that punishmnet has expired, a second time by Ceremonial Law.

Re Barrow Island, on what basis do you suggest that they have a much weightier argument than the GE's..are they still devotees of Ceremonial Life, is their world still dominated by Ceremonial Law, do their Song Lines criss cross the ocean in the area targeted for mining?

I'm not an activist beating a drum. I'm paid by the Traditional Owners to Coordinate their campaign against seabed mining- although I am also personally opposed to GOT's seabased mining ambitions. On these pages I attempt to articulate the TO's postion and sensibilities as I understand them, attempting, where I can to cite information in the public domain as "evidence".

Another assertion of yours is that no tangible damage has been done to the Culture here by mining. That's certainly not the view of the TO's. They believe that the dislocation and desecration of their Song Lines and sites of significance is directly responsible for their falling life expectancy (the median age for men 44 years, for women 51 years). While Mainstreamers put this down to lifestyle diseases etc. it's simply not the way they see it. And it is a fact that life expectancy for the GE's has dropped since mining commmenced.

Maybe the seascape and the song lines will be destroyed by GOT, or the other mining companies who will no doubt line up behind them as sure as the sun rises in the morning. But if that's the case this mob are determined to go down fighting, and delay what may well be inevitable for long as they can.

My driving personal motivation is to see that my wife, who is 65 next month, goes to her grave convinced that she will be buried in her culture's time honoured processes. Simple as that really.

Re your concluding statements about mining. It's certainly in the ascendency and there is a grwing tendency to see that any mining, just because it is mining, by definition, must be a good thing. Given that we don't manufacture anything here any more God knows what happens to Oz when the quarry is exhausted...but the narcissistic impulses of Mainstream Individualists seem to be so overwhelmingly the drivers of our thoughts and actions that we tend to take the view that it's all about the here and now and that somehow the future will take care of itself.

Growth economics, while positively impacting on material wealth in the here and now and for the forseeable future is the ultimate furphy, at some stage there's going to be no more resources to exploit...it's as simple as that. Shop shut, full stop.

But as we're going to be long dead by then I guess we should just get on with ripping and tearing in the present.

Great post Dilinja...I hope I've covered everything. If I haven't remind me what I've missed, but if it's of the compexity of your most recent post I might actually respond some time tomorrow.