MEDIA STATEMENT
“It’s a tragedy you can see sky where you should be peering through canopy. Old trees just thrown, and that’s the way they describe it – windthrown timber, just thrown to the ground as if it’s a leaf that’s fallen from a tree, like its nothing. It’s a tragedy.”
Rodney Carter, DJAARA CEO
When we feel our Ancestors, when we sing our culture and when we sit with Country, we are embodying and continuing the oldest living culture on the planet.
Barramul (the emu) has a really significant connection to the Dja Dja Wurrung at the Milky Way. As Djaara, Dja Dja Wurrung People, when we look at the night sky we can see our relationship with our Ancestors through story and Country.
We feel this profound connection to our culture, to our Ancestors and to Country in our very being. When Country is not well, we too cannot be well.
The inappropriate management of our Country has made it sick and the universal effects of climate change have weakened it and made it susceptible to great damage in storm events such as those last year in the Wombat State Forest.
For Country to continue to provide for all, it is essential that we be allowed to heal Country according to our forest gardening principles. We have 60,000 years of experience in looking after this Country and all we are asking is that our community respect our knowledge, respect our leadership and respect our capability. We will not be silenced anymore.
Watch Our Culture lives in us
DJAARA MEDIA STATEMENT Our Culture lives in us
