Hi, I've just joined the EcoFem network and thought I'd introduce
myself.
I am Zohl de Ishtar. An Irish-Australian Lesbian, I have worked with the
Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific movement, an Indigenous led global
network, since 1982. My main focus is working with Indigenous Australian
and Pacific women. I lived at Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp in
England from 1983-88 and initiated and established the British network
Women for a Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific. I have toured
extensively in the Pacific region, and have visited over 27 countries as
a political activist. I am author of the book "Daughters of the Pacific"
(Spinifex Press, 1994). In 1995 I was, to my knowledge, the only
Australian to sail with the Aotearoan/New Zealand Peace Flotilla to
Moruroa to protest French nuclear testing. I am presently Oceania
Representative (Female) for the International Peace Bureau, the world's
oldest and largest peace network existing since 1897. I am now working
as campaign manager for the matrilineal Malera people of NSW who are
attempting to stop Ross Mining, one of Australia's largest mining
companies, from digging up their sacred mountain for gold. (I'll send
another email with that information.) I have also worked with the
Kukatja people of WA, on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert, as "culture
woman" for them, assisting them to protect their Yawulyu, Women's
Dreaming, and after being "adopted" into that community maintain an
ongoing relationship with them. I am presently living in Sydney. On the
academic side I have two Masters degrees, in sociology. Like anyone,
there's a lot more to the story but that's all for now folks. I'm
delighted to be on the network and look forward to some good
discussions.
Zohl de Ishtar
Women for a Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific, Australia
International Peace Bureau, Oceania Rep (Female)
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Wed Mar 18 17:10:26 1998
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 11:15:50 +1000
From: Zohl de Ishtar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: EcoFem <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Malera Campaign
BLOODLINES ... NOT EXTINGUISHMENT!�
MATRILINEAL MALERA PEOPLE MOVE TO STOP GOLD MINING
The Malera people, a matrilineal nation in north-east New South Wales,
are moving
to stop Ross Mining from digging up their ancestral country for gold.
This is the first
Native Title case in NSW concerning mining.
Ross Mining has already begun to bulldoze the road in, and are expecting
to begin
mining in the near future. A protest camp has been established on the
mountain.
Your support is *urgently* needed. You can:
Make a donation by sending a cheque (marked �Moruroa Campaign�) to
Malera
Campaign, PO Box 172, Annandale, 2038, Australia.
Hold an event (dinner with friends?) that raises money for Malera.
Publish this article in any newsletter/magazine which you think
appropriate.
Lobby your Member of Parliament if you�re in Australia.
Tell people what�s happening.
If you live in Sydney you might want to join our Action Group.
There�s lots to do and we need your help - just let us know what you�re
doing.
Contact the Malera Campaign at <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or tel:
61+2+96603670.
Following is an article with custodian Kathy Malera-Bundjalan about her
people�s
campaign to stop the mine, written by Malera Campaign co-ordinator Zohl
de Ishtar.
*************************************************************
BLOODLINES ... NOT EXTINGUISHMENT
�Malera country is Gold Dreaming and we as the Malera people are the
children of
the Gold Dreaming,� said Kathy Malera-Bandjalan. With the voice of her
family,
Malera-Bundjalan has vowed to stop the mining of her ancestral land on
the Timbarra
(Malera) plateau in northern NSW (near Tenterfield).
Ross Mining, one of Australia�s largest mining companies, has engineered
an
agreement with the New South Wales Lands Council and a local Bundjalung
Corporation especially established for that purpose. But the Malera
people have
refused to give their permission to the project. Whilst holding no
animosity towards
the respected individuals who signed the agreement, the Malera insist
that the
contract is not valid. They argue that the party that signed on the
dotted line was not
qualified to do so alone. According to Malera-Bandjalan, �Some of them
are my
relations, my grandmother�s cousins on our grandfather�s side, but that
doesn�t mean
that they hold the same stories and connection. It�s my grandmother�s
line that is from
Malera. The bloodline families from Malera still exist and we hold an
unbroken
living connection to our country through our language, culture and our
Gold
Dreaming stories.�
�Malera people are Grandmother�s Law. We come from the grandmother�s
blood
line. The Malera are a matrilineal nation. Custodianship is with women
and men, but
women hold Grandmother�s Law through the direct bloodline. One of the
most
significant things about our connection to this site as the Malera
family is that since
Yurals� [non-Aboriginal people] arrival to our homelands we have only
had one
producing female every generation. So, whilst equally acknowledging all
family
members and their Dreamings and totems to Malera, it�s my responsibility
as a
Malera daughter to speak out on this.�
Mining threatens the entire mountain area and would pollute the Clarence
river with
by-products of arsenic and cyanide, destroying the northern waterways,
its river and
stream systems. But environmental issues are not the only concern.
The proposed mine is an attack on the Malera people, their land and
identity, argues
Malera-Bandjalan. �Malera is sacred to us as a people. To attack our
land is to attack
our people. To mine Malera is to totally kill our spirit. It is to kill
everything we
believe in. It is to cease our existence as a people. We have lost
enough without losing
any more, especially our Dreaming and sacred sites. Especially those
that are of
particular strength to women. It�s about women�s strength, women�s
identity, their
role as providers. For too long Aboriginal women have been denied even
their first
right - their birthright to practice their matrilineal Law, to remember
and pass to their
daughters and grand-daughters the Dreaming stories of their Law and
their culture.�
Malera-Bandjalan warns that the integrity of bloodlines should not be
undermined.
�Our bloodlines are our link to our land. Identity is really important.
I mean, if you
don�t know where you�re from, you�re never going to know where you�re
going to.
The most important thing about it is the whole Stolen Generation. It�s
important that
people can go home to a true blood line, to a true tradition. As long as
they can�t do
that these kids will never come home. So it�s important for those coming
home, and
those who have always been at home, to keep some of the stories in
their
Dreamings.�
The contract is being heralded as a historical milestone as the first
Native Title
agreement between a mining company and Aboriginal people in NSW.
Malera-Bandjalan looks at it from a different perspective.
�This is a new challenge,� she asserts. �In Wik we looked at pastoral
leases and did
battle over that but this will be a challenge in terms of mineral
wealth. Native Title, if
done properly, could give people the opportunity to connect to their
blood groups and
retain the connection to their land. But this claim is undermining the
spirit of Native
Title and the rights of traditional owners. People should really look at
this for what it
is. Maybe they�ll see through the lies and see what the government
really is doing to
our people under the guise of �reconciliation� in 1997. This isn�t
reconciliation. This
is extinguishment. This is about genocide.�
But, she continues, �we are not extinguished. We are not a dead people.
We are very
much alive and we are very strong. We still practice our belief. The
government is
not going to get extinguishment out of the Malera people. There�s been a
settlement
in this country for over 200 years and the Malera people were not
extinguished then
and we are not extinguished now, and we want that really clear. We are a
strong
people and we will fight to the end. We are from our Grandmother�s Law
and we will
not stop. We will win this fight. Malera is ours.�
*********
Kathy Malera-Bandjalan was formerly known as Kathy Kum-Sing. Following
in the
steps of Oodgeroo Noonuccal, she has changed her name legally to honour
her
connections to her people, her land and her grandmother�s Law. She has
been
nominated by the Pacific Concerns Resource Centre/Nuclear Free and
Independent
Pacific movement for the international One Hundred Heroines Awards.
(Total word count: 986)
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Wed Mar 18 17:42:17 1998
Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1998 19:40:34 -0500
From: Charlotte Zoe Walker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: zohl - New Member
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reply-to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Zohl, just want to say how much I admire the work you've done and are
doing. I look forward to reading more about it. I'll follow the Malera
campaign with interest and hope that I can help in some way. Best
wishes-- Charlotte
Charlotte Zoe Walker
Prof. of English and Women's Studies
SUNY Oneonta
Oneonta, NY 13820
