This week, in the
Kimberley two Indigenous meetings will be held to talk about the ramifications
of the proposed fracking regime of the Canning Basin and their homelands.
Agendas are based around concerns regarding usage and misuse of their precious
surface & underground waters, effects to the environment, the interminable
admission of poisonous emissions and of course all the social implications on
socially anguished communities.
Indigenous people all over the world are
fighting resource extraction from their lands in order to fulfill their birth
obligations to protect and conserve for the following of births. The
depredations of fracking and government collusion with industry come as no
surprise to indigenous people or the Broome community—it is yet another form of
extractive colonialism laying waste to the land and water and sacrificing the
health of the people for short term economic gain of a very few.
Resistance to
fracking has been widespread and politically diverse. Fracking poses dire threats to universal
things we all need such as clean water and air, it naturally unifies people
when they stand up to fight it.
Importantly, local grassroots community
organising has formed the base of the anti-fracking movement across the nation
and now people in the Kimberley are turning their attentions to the proposed
industrialised gas fields on a massive scale across the Canning Basin and coal
mining in the Fitzroy Valley.
Basically, people of
all different social backgrounds who never considered themselves
activists are realizing that their water supply, their wilderness and their
communities are under threat. The community is talking to their neighbors, in
shopping centres, and at family and community gatherings. Quietly and surely
their resistance and their collective community power is being mustered against
these proposed distressing and nauseating fracking industry corporations.
When the EPA and
other regulatory departments neglect their legislative obligations or uphold
even the basic of principles like Duty
of Care. When compliance and monitoring responsibilities are never undertaken
unless brought to their attention by concern persons, the media or questions in
parliament. When they: dismiss the public calls for help’ gainsay true
independent umpire, deny the damages of fracking operations and than declare
its safe is both unforgiveable and unbelievable. To place the control over
these operations into the hands of the Department of Mines and Petroleum is
placing the roasted chicken in the fox’s mouth.
However, what does
become clear to many people is that these departments and their fossil fool
corporate masters are deeply corrupted. People are radicalized as they start to
realise that these cozy arrangements benefit a few and are actually working
against their interests, dreams and future plans.
Resistance tactics have ranged from the passing of local shire or
community-wide bans on fracking, community science and monitoring, to sit-ins
at corrupt politicians’ offices and numerous blockades of drilling sites,
pipeline construction sites and wastewater injection facilities. Across Australian
grassroots resistance is playing an important role. Mainstream environmental
NGO’s have taken center stage in anti-fracking organising, focused largely on
seeking legislative moratoriums or bans.
While professional activist groups offer a wealth of valuable resources and
experience navigating environmental law, their larger organisational
imperatives and agendas can limit the vision of movements and lead to
compromises and decisions that aren't in the best interests of local
communities and in some cases even the ecosystems. It’s important that
community organisers be aware of organisational power dynamics when
collaborating with NGOs, so as to maintain local autonomy, emphasising power from below and direct involvement
of community members in decision making is vital. It’s a united community
power, their motivation, intent, networks, history and connection that carry successful
campaigns.
It doesn’t make any sense to focus on fracking as a single issue. Even if
fracking or oil drilling itself was totally banned, we know the more industry
will be back soon with a new and ever-more destructive form of resource
extraction.
Clearly, for this
work to mean anything long-term, we have to be working towards much bigger
changes in our relationship to the land and how we meet our needs, and we have
to challenge the power structure that depends on the continuation of
ever-increasing plunder and exploitation. What’s exciting about the
anti-fracking movement is that it’s building grassroots community power and
waging that against industry and government corruption. The networks of
resistance we build now and the experiences we learn from will be crucial in
future struggles.
Conflict over fracking in the Kimberley and within all Australian’s major Water
Basins will undoubtedly be increasing in the years to come, as environmental
problems and water shortages grow ever more severe and people grow ever so Fed
Up.
We can all clearly
see that these old fossil fools corporations have their foot firmly planted on
the accelerator in fear of their never ending decline in profit margins. These
injudicious mugs will not stop ransacking the land or poisoning all our water
until our resistance becomes powerful enough to make it unprofitable and
impossible for them to travel down their road map to destruction.
We do not have to
look any further than the Pilbara to have insight into broken promises of
wealth, prosperity and employment for all. There are dead mining towns and all
their associated polluting rubbish all over this country.
I have total and
complete faith that Indigenous communities throughout the Kimberly will create
a historical united frontline of resistance to the extractive industries. Why,
because they will dare the brunt of the social, economic and environmental
impacts and all its associated harmful effects.
Indigenous people are
taking it upon themselves to travel the dusty roads taking information and
films out to the people in order for them to be educated about fracking and the
tactics used by these corporations to divide and conquer. The mirror and beads
game no longer works. Many Traditional Owners, Elders and leaders from around
the Kimberley have been outspoken against and have and will continue to educate
their people and lobby hard against fracking. Free, Prior and Informed Consent Rights
are alive and kicking up lots of pindan dust directly into the faces of the
profiteers.
Leadership in
anti-fracking struggle has largely emerged from the powerful and deeply rooted
indigenous feeling of their true sovereignty, of keeping Country strong and the
water clean and flowing. Indigenous communities across the world have extensive
experience defending their lands, and many have firmly drawn the line against
fracking. It will be no different in the Kimberley. We’ll hold the ground.
In Australia,
Indigenous people have been fighting the extractive system for longer than
anyone else because they are the most impacted upon by its harmful
effects. It’s a settler colony based on
a colonial, extractive relationship with the land and a genocidal relationship
with indigenous people. The responsibility to confront the colonial system,
support indigenous self-determination and actually transform our relationships
with the land and indigenous people belongs to everyone living in the Australia:
if we don’t, we’re continuing to enact a legacy of genocide and we’re destined
to extinguish the life support systems of the planet.
Solidarity isn’t just about feel-good charity or lending a helping hand, it’s
about building mutual partnerships that can sustain joint struggle and support
collective well-being in the long term. Solidarity grows from being strongly
rooted in your own struggle and recognising our deepest values and needs in the
struggles of others. Solidarity demands that we know ourselves and where we
stand. That entails things like learning our family/ancestral stories and the
history of the land we are living on, reflecting often on what is most
important to us and why, and locating ourselves and our complicities in the
larger structures of oppression. To live in solidarity with indigenous self-determination,
we must also be seeking self-determination ourselves. Together, we determine
the future; we issue the Social Licence to operate.
The pursuit of economic growth at all costs is not only destructive for
indigenous peoples but also for the rest of humanity and the planet. The focus
on GDP as a main measure of progress has distorted the true meaning of progress
and wellbeing. For example, damage to ecosystems, irreversible loss in
biological diversity and the erosion of cultural and linguistic diversity and
indigenous traditional knowledge are not factored into the balance sheet. Such
ecological, cultural, social and spiritual indicators, which provide more
comprehensive measurements of national and global situations, are seldom used.
The failure of the dominant development paradigm, as evidenced by the
lingering global economic crisis, the environmental crisis of climate change
and the erosion of biological diversity, signals the need to evolve alternative
ways of thinking about and pursuing development. Indigenous peoples’ visions
and perspectives of development provide some of these alternatives that should
be articulated and discussed further:
Development with culture and identity can be further strengthened
through genuine collaboration among indigenous peoples, academics, scientists and
NGOs. When pursued correctly, with trust being the biding collaboration is can
prove to be beneficial not only for empowering indigenous peoples and their cultures
but also for enriching and having a positive impact on the broader society and
environment.
Be prepared to be disregarded
—remember the history. Keep showing up when support is requested, attend the
meetings and demonstrate your commitment to Country, Culture and Community. Seek
to build the networks, support and cohesion. WE HOLD THE GROUND.
Photo Damian Kelly
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