Hi again FluffynymphFYI a text of a primary document (as opposed...

Hi again Fluffynymph

FYI a text of a primary document (as opposed to my second hand discourse) defining the TO's position in relation to GOT. As somebody only lately investing in the stock you may not be aware of its existence.

For verification of authenticity:
[email protected] Legal Officer, ALC)

This is a letter to the CM of NT (and CC'd to various politicians). His reply was that the isssues would be dealt with under the legislation, although as you might imagine inunleashed off the record conversations, which in fact continue to this day. GOT received a copy of this letter a day or two after it was delivered to the CM.

"The Traditional Owners of the Groote Archipelago
Angurugu NT
[email protected]

20th October, 2010

The Honourable Paul Henderson
Chief Minister of the Northern
Darwin NT

Dear Mr. Henderson,

It is with a sense of outrage that the Traditional Owners of the Groote Archipelago feel compelled to write this letter.

As you are aware your Government granted exploration tenements to a Western Australian based company, Groote Resources Ltd, covering Winchelsea and Bickerton Island and, off-shore, areas of the sea to the North West, West and South of the Eylandt.

Many of us retain memories of a time, just a few short years ago, when you, yourself, made a stirring speech as machinery stood poised to begin the task of constructing the Dugong Beach Resort. At the time you praised the initiative and vision of the Traditional Owners in investing in a future beyond mining. A future based on eco-tourism; utilising a pristine marine environment and our ancient, enduring, living culture as the lure. You also indicated that the venture had the full support of your government.

Now, we are appalled to discover that in 2010 your government has thrown its support behind a mining exploration company which, if it has its way, would undertake open cut mining of manganese on the sea bed, possibly within metres of the resort itself. For, Mr Henderson, one of the tenements granted to Groote Resources, by your Government, extends to the low water mark the length of our western coastline. This recent action by your Government renders those words of such a short time ago as nothing more than deceitful and duplicitous; mocking our culture and our endeavours to secure the economic and Spiritual well being of our people into the future.

And yours wasn?t the only Government praising our vision and initiative. The Commonwealth Government came with encouraging words and high praise, whether its utterances prove to be as hollow as yours will be put to the test in the very near future.

How, the Traditional Owners, ask you, are we to capitalise on our $23 million dollar investment in an eco-friendly future underpinned by the interest Australians and the world takes in our ancient culture? If Groote Resources is permitted to eke out its plans, both our culture and the marine environment will be destroyed by the scourge of open cut mining on the sea bed.

Sir, how long, we ask you, does it take to rehabilitate a coral reef? Well, although your Government treats us as disposable fools, we know the answer. It grows at between 0.8 ? 80mm per year and takes 3,500 ? 138,000 years to establish.

How, we ask you, do you rehabilitate a Culture, a Religion really, whose very foundations are destroyed? We know the answer to that too. And the answer is never. Once it is gone, it is gone for good. Obliterated!

Mr. Henderson our Culture is a Religion; one of the most ancient Religions on Earth. All of us, every man, woman and child, of all of the families of the Archipelago, are religious fundamentalists. Ceremonial Aborigines of the Groote Eylandt Archipelago is what we are; a combination of two Cultures, the original Groote Eylandters being the Waunindilyakwan, with those who migrated from the Mainland, following the Song Streams of their Totemic Ancestors, the Nunggubbuyyu. Today the latter outnumber the former.

To explain further, ours is a reincarnationist Religion. The aborigines on the western side of Groote originally came from the mainland. We migrated here following our Song Lines or Song Streams. The Song Lines and Song Streams are the journeys our Totemic Ancestors made in creating both the seascape between the mainland and Groote, and the landscape of Groote itself. Eight Song Streams criss-cross the tenements granted to Groote Resources.

All Song Streams emanate from Promised Lands on the mainland. Our belief is that people, in fact all natural phenomena, travel the Song Streams to actualise from the Spiritual to the Physical. When an individual dies they are then ?sung? back along their Song Stream, to their Promised Land, to be reborn. This process takes days, possibly weeks. We do this for every single death, as we have always done.

While we have described us as reincarnationists, what we really do is ensure that reincarnation occurs. So, to us, it?s not a numinous or sentimental ?belief?, it?s the practical application of Ceremony in ensuring the spirits of the dead return to their Promised Land to be reborn.

The actions of your Government may, and the intentions of Groote Resources, if taken to their logical conclusion, will, collude to destroy our Culture, collude to destroy our Religion. All those so called ?Corroborees?, those Songs and Dances, may be entertainment to the politicians and others who come and fawn all over us, smiling like Cheshire cats, with their empty words and their promises. But in fact they are our Song Cycles; they are the well spring, the umbilical cords of our Religion. They are our life blood. They tell us where we came from; lay down the rules of marriage; and define our Kin relationships to all natural phenomena. They allow us to be reborn.

The Song Streams themselves cannot be mapped like train tracks or lines on a map, although some anthropologists have attempted to do just that. We have a different view of time and space than Westerners. While the West sees ?time? as linear, and ?space? as mathematically measurable, our view is that time and space are unbounded; meaning, for example, that a person may be reincarnated in the past, the present or the future, and that our Strong Streams are infinite, unmeasurable by the science of the West.

During a meeting between the Traditional Owners and Groote Resources on September 17th, the decision makers of Groote Resources told us that they would mine ?between the Song Lines?. We were incensed! Because from our world view that is stupid, a total impossibility. Although some areas of the sea are more ?sacred? or ?significant? than others our Totemic Ancestors made the totality of the seascape, not just bits and pieces. It?s all sacred to us.

A few of our white advisors have suggested that disruption or obliteration of the Song Streams would be the equivalent of destroying a church, mosque or temple. It is not. It?s much more like destroying God himself. It would certainly be the finish of us. That?s why the proposed activities of Groote Resources frighten us. That is why our leaders ?cry inside? while outwardly refusing to flinch in this time of dire peril. Given that we are a family based culture, in fact a culture of competing family groups existing under the umbrella of Ceremony and Kin, it?s also the reason we have united in our efforts to thwart Groote Resources intentions.

The Traditional Owners of the Groote Archipelago appeal to you Sir, directly, to stop Groote Resources in their tracks. On environmental grounds alone commonsense demands nothing else. On environmental grounds alone, in regards to this issue, your Government will be judged as either Neanderthal and barbaric or a civilised, reasoned force carving out a ?green? future for Territorians. Why, we ask you, would you collude in destroying an environmental jewel, a delicate, pristine, fragile marine environment, to mine manganese when there is a surfeit on Land? It makes no sense.

The Traditional Owners of the Groote Archipelago have given up on any hope that any Australian Government- State, Commonwealth or Territory- despite hollow rhetoric, gives two hoots about the World View or Spiritual and physical well being of Ceremonial Aborigines. Australia is supposed to be an inclusive country, respecting all the religions and all the cultures that make up this nation. Bollocks! Our World View, our Religion, our Culture is always marginalised. The granting of those tenements to Groote Resources Ltd is just one more shameful chapter in the ongoing saga.

Mr Henderson, if Groote Resources Ltd, with the blessing of your Government proceeds to Stage 1, the so called ?non-intrusive? Mapping Stage, the Traditional Owners of the Groote Archipelago will take the view that both your Government and Groote Resources Ltd have declared war on our culture, because we know from that point in time that we will be fighting for our very existence.

It is our intention, Sir, that if mapping begins we will mount a public and political campaign that will make the battle to save the Franklin River look like the Teddy Bear?s Picnic. We have no choice; the alternative is our own Armageddon.

Sir, we expect a reply to this communication before a meeting between the Traditional Owners and the decision makers of Groote Resources Ltd which takes place at Angurugu on Thursday 28th October.

Yours Sincerely

Nancy Damadada Lalara and Lionel Jaragba

(Co-Secretaries for the Traditional Owners of the Groote Archipelago)



Cc:
Jennifer Maklin MP
Tony Burke MP
Warren Snowdon MP
Robert Oakshott MP
Andrew Wilke MP
Senator Bob Brown
Gerry Woods MLA
Minister Vaskalis MLA
Minister McCarthy MLA
Minister Hampton MLA"