an example for us all

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/from-land-rights-to-gas-noonkanbah-elder-john-watson-fights-for-his-people/story-fn59niix-1226154568330

From land rights to gas, Noonkanbah elder John Watson fights for his people

THIRTY years have passed since John Watson confronted the powerful mining industry and the equally imposing figure of premier Charles Court, and helped define Noonkanbah as a turning point in the fight for land rights.

Now one of the Kimberley's most respected elders, Mr Watson vividly remembers a convoy of drilling rigs violently punching through Aboriginal picket lines in 1980 and miners under police protection beginning to drill in and around sacred sites.

Now in his 70s, Mr Watson likens the "brave" decision by traditional owners near Broome to back Woodside's plan to build a $30 billion gas hub at James Price Point to the stance he and others took at the remote Fitzroy Crossing cattle station all those years ago.

"The decision to want gas is a brave decision of self-determination," he told The Weekend Australian at a gathering of land, language and law elders at remote Nyumpan community, 90km east of Fitzroy Crossing.

"The people said yes, we would like to see this happen, to send our kids to school, to have houses and benefits. People - white people and black people - need to respect that decision.

"This is not a short-term plan; it's a long-term decision. What many white people don't understand is that our people have never had the opportunity to make that decision on their own."

The decision by the Goolarabooloo Jabbir Jabbir people to allow the gas hub development, and receive a $1.3bn jobs and compensation package has driven division deep within the community of Broome, where protesters blockade the road to the site, 60km north of town.

It has also caused division within the Aboriginal community there, with some Jabbir Jabbir people unhappy at the way the vote to make the deal with Woodside was conducted in April.

The Kimberley Land Council, the Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Cultural Centre, and the Kimberley Language and Resource Centre, representing the 29 tribal groups across the entire Kimberley, camped for the past four days at the Fitzroy community and reaffirmed their support for the decision by Jabirr Jabirr traditional owners to back the contentious LNG project.

The Weekend Australian was invited to the meeting, the most important gathering of Kimberley Aborigines each year, where issues of police and justice, youth suicide, health education and culture, law and language are debated. Mr Watson, an elder with the Nyikina Mangala people, said like so many others, he had been a "CDEP man" and for many years had depended on the taxpayer. "I'm an old man now, but I don't want to live off the welfare system; I can't buy a house, I can't buy a car . . . it takes me many years to save up for a car," he said.

Mr Watson said many white people were well-meaning, but they "don't see the struggle we go through every day, they don't see the social issues, they don't see the problems that we need to fix".

His son, Anthony, a KLC representative and one of several prominent Aborigines tagged "toxic coconuts" in an anti-gas newsletter recently circulated around Broome, said the Aboriginal unemployment rate in the Kimberley was appalling.

"The pastoral industry would take about 1000, the pearl industry would probably take a couple of hundred and while there's plenty of people trained in tourism, it's not a big employer," he said.

"Many of our men are dying before they are 50. We have so many social and health problems, sometimes we just don't know where to start. Yet when we try to deal ourselves into the game we are racially abused and criticised for helping our people."

Last week, former KLC chief executive Wayne Bergmann accused green groups opposed to the Woodside project of reneging on a 2007 deal in which they promised to back any Aboriginal decision on the project if an onshore gas facility was confined to a single hub along the pristine Kimberley coast.

On Tuesday, longtime Labor MP Carol Martin, the first indigenous woman elected to an Australian parliament, shocked colleagues by announcing she would not stand for re-election. While citing family reasons that had nothing to do with the ill-feeling in the town, she blasted the anti-gas protesters who had opposed the project.

About 20km along a dusty red road that leads tourists and Woodside workers to the site of the gas hub at James Price Point, the people Ms Martin described as "ferals" and "mung beans" yesterday invited the retiring MP to their camp "for a cup of tea".

Showing The Weekend Australian around their camp, the protesters outlined their daily strategy, which begins at 6am when they "frock up" in clown suits, wigs and masks to begin their blockade of the road to James Price Point. They hide their faces to escape prosecution from police who, depending on their workload, arrive at about 9am. Most of the impoverished protesters who choose to stand in front of the cars run into the bush at the sight of them.

The blockades - held about 6.30am, 1.30pm and 4pm - mean Woodside workers spend hours sitting patiently in their cars, windows up, with air-conditioning on. Some workers constantly video-tape protesters who jump in front of them, wave placards in their faces, and dance to whatever music blares from a nearby boom box. Many Woodside cars also have video cameras mounted on front windscreens.

It's not hard to detect their simmering resentment, yet they say nothing when asked to comment. Inside the protesters' tent, information newsletters and photographs of police violently clashing with them are proudly pinned to the walls. Passing tourists stop to visit, and a cup of tea or coffee is offered in the hope of a small gold coin donation.

Their camp, complete with outback shower bag that hangs off the branch of a leaning gum, a veggie garden and compost heap, is comfortable, but with the approaching wet season, they won't reveal where they plan to go next.

They believe the original vote by Jabirr Jabirr traditional owners was invalid because some Aborigines were not invited to the vote, some who voted were underage, and many were bullied by the Kimberley Land Council into supporting the project - claims the KLC has always rejected.

None of the protesters interviewed by The Weekend Australian was from the Kimberley, but all said the fight was now a national and international issue that was gathering pace on various well-visited websites that linked green groups across the globe.

Carter McDonald, 40, from Gympie, was planning to head to Tibet and Nepal but decided to come to the Kimberley because "this is the most important thing I can do".

Having grown up in Papua New Guinea, he compared the fight over the gas hub with Australian soldiers fighting the Japanese along the Kokoda Track.

Liz, who didn't give her surname, said she missed out on her 17-year-old son's graduation because she believed this fight was more important. A travel consultant whose last stop was Darwin, she said there were many contentious issues surrounding the project, but the one that upset her most was the hopelessness facing many indigenous youngsters.

The project was destroying the important traditional songlines that ran along that part of the coast, she said.

The Woodside project would do nothing to enhance their way of life, she added.

All distanced themselves from the racist newsletter.

Broome police have spent more than $500,000 in manpower and resources dealing with the issue in the five weeks to August. Since the blockade began in July, they have made 38 arrests, issued 33 traffic infringements and have handed out 41 "move on" notices

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