Adani wants to send in the police, but we’re standing our ground


Stories / Monday, September 23rd, 2019

Adani is seeking a Supreme Court order that would arm them with the ability to use police against us. 

Members of the Wangan and Jagalingou Council  have been conducting ceremonies on country to make peace with our ancestor spirits, and to heal the land in the face of the damage Adani are doing. It is a solemn time for us.

But we are confronted by Adani security who are preventing us from returning to our ceremonial site where native title was recently extinguished for the Carmichael mine’s infrastructure. Now Adani wants to make the police do their bidding as well. 

They want the State to do their dirty work by making us trespassers on our own country. Adani wants to break our connection to our sites and ceremonial places.

Now is the time for all our supporters to stand with us in solidarity to defend our people, our rights and our country.

STAND WITH US AND SIGN OUR PLEDGE! 

We must and will continue to resist.

With no sense of irony at all, Adani is demanding we ask them for consent to access our cultural sites. They are using the courts to tell us not to interfere with their possession of our land, or damage things on the land. The irony would be high farce if it were not so brutal in its execution.

But we are standing our ground against Adani’s takeover and destruction of our country. We are present on our land to maintain our resistance and our honour.

Our latest video tells more about our stand.

You can watch and share it here.

STANDING OUR GROUND

Our fight has always been to halt the Adani project and prevent it from opening up our country to coal mining. The fight is still on.

As First Nations people we have always said no. And no means no. Our law says we cannot sign away our land.

The Queensland Government can pretend that extinguishing our native title for Adani is routine business. They can hide behind unjust statutes and administration to move land titles around. They can rest on sham processes to get the so-called ‘land use agreements’ they need.

But it will always be our land. It holds our spiritual connections, our culture, our history and law.

We are standing our ground to stop this and other destructive coal and gas projects on our country.

We must work together to ensure Adani’s climate-wrecking mine of mass destruction becomes the stranded asset it deserves to be. 

CLIMATE JUSTICE

Speaking to a sea of people at the global climate strikes in Brisbane on Friday was a beautiful moment in a difficult time. 

We stand together with all First Nations people. We stand against this injustice. We want climate justice for everybody. As First Nations people, we will lead the way.

We’re against coal mining in our Country. We’re against those who would strip our rights in this Country. And we’re going to stand and fight for our rights.

Now, we need everyone who was there to sign our pledge to stand with us – can you send this post to someone who was at the climate strike?  

View the video of Adrian’s rallying speech.

The Queensland Government failed us in the first place. It is the State’s policy, without any real First Nations consultation and consent, to open up the Galilee Basin. This outdated and oppressive approach will defeat attempts at reconciliation and treaties with First Nations people.

Our people have struggled since the 1860s to hold onto our lands and human rights, our culture and dignity, in the face of colonial exploitation and dispossession. Today we still refuse to give our consent to the taking and destruction of our beautiful country and culture.

We need your support to sustain our fight. 

We must continue to resist Governments who would deny our rights, and Adani and the other coal miners lining up to plunder our homelands and fuel runaway global warming. 

PLEASE DONATE TO OUR “DEFENCE OF COUNTRY” FUND.

And please ask your friends to pledge to stand with us.

Adrian Burragubba, Murrawah Johnson & Linda Bobongie

for the Wangan and Jagalingou Traditional Owners Family Council


Remember, you can  purchase our “Adani, No Means No” or “Water Protector” T-shirts to support us. And you can share these links to encourage others who care about land justice to donate to our Defence of Country fund, and to join the 130,000 people who have signed our petition.

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