I’m a singer/songwriter and photographer and was very inspired to let more people know about the struggle you guys are having after watching the 4 Corners feature on the situation up there with FMG. I ended up writing a song about it you might like to check out. Uncle Ned passed away on the same day as my grandfather Jimmy Little and this in combination with my feelings towards the situation up there I felt I wanted to say something about it all. I tried as much as I could though to use the words and feelings of the people up there.

http://soundcloud.com/jameshenrymusic/separate-paths-1

Here’s the lyrics and where the influence came from with my small amount of web research. I hope ya like.

Verse 1
(from this)
Coming in from the sea, was he, the great snake spirit that travels up the river
To make sure everyone was ok across country

Verse 2
But blind Billy could see, from the hills, the ceremony master
For the spirits would be singing to him, the upcoming sense of disharmony

Chorus 1
Should a forest grow from digging in the desert
Should his people have to work for wage for their own pay dirt

Verse 3
(From this)
Looking out on the rust coloured sand
In one hand he holds on to their future
And in the other holding on to his ancestry

Chorus 2
What do the people want for their next generation
Dreams and identity or cash compensation

Bridge
(From what uncle says at the end of this)
Divided now all of them
Only their country will bring them back together again
In his spirit he feels this pain
They are the country he feels that they’re loosing
Separate paths now his people are choosing

Solo

Verse 4
He can see through his tears, his fears, of his people left divided
By the lore of the land and the law of the man

Chorus 3
Is a billionaire a poorer person’s equal
Is progress to acceptance a necessary evil
If the story’s lost would there be a sequel

End

For the Yindjibarndi People and all other peoples who are or have been or will be driven from their land by the rapacious miners of the Pilbara.

It’s an eating
And a shitting
Analogy?
A synergy

Of compulsion
And revulsion?
Feeding nation/
nation feeding.

Those billionaires
Work the figures:
Divide, conquer/
Coffins, coffers.

Red ore engorged,
Flowers blooded,
Wild contusion
Styled transfusion;

The vast ‘donor’
Left hollow or
Gasping for breath:
Smelters are stealth

Out where the sky
Is primary.
The bands, the seams,
Layers of dreams:

Laws of plosion
Exploration,
Peg-claim: purvey
voyeurs’ surveys

A deletion,
Or extinction
A tenement
As testament?

Miners’ terror:
Stygofauna.
But not the ‘law’
They can pay for.

They eat bodies.
They shit corpses.
Acacias.
Budgerigars.

by John Kinsella

First published in The Sydney Morning Herald on February 18, 2012

By Kirsten Tona 2011


You cannot divide us by race
We multiply.
Our Group grows like a burning fuse, lit by our anger
at the desecration of Country
at the disrespect of Culture.
And although anger can turn to hate, which only burns out the hater,
the wise ones amongst us remind us
to keep our anger righteous,
to use it in the service of justice,
to bend it to the will of love.

Love:
For the Country that bore us
For the Earth that nurtures us
For the water, the air and the sky
For all other creatures that began with the first spark of Life.
For the grace of trees
For the music of rivers
For the sun-washed colours of the Great Rock: heart of this island continent.
How is this heartbeat not felt by all?

When raucous birds, drunk on fruit, shit on the land from a great distance (the sky),
their shit fertilises the soil and carries the seeds of new life,
balanced in the rhythm of nature’s great cycles.
When mind-sick men, drunk on power, shit on the land from a great distance (the City)
their shit slashes great wounds in the ground, poisons the waterways,
cheats the People and steals from the future.
How can they not understand this?

In their insane greed, they thrust toxins deep into the earth,
and the very ground beneath our feet becomes unstable.
Water catches fire, living beings sicken, winged creatures fall from foul yellow skies.

But when sense and beauty pass from one mind to another
Hope and truth flare, dispelling despair, fear, panic and lies.

Across the country, around the world, minds and hearts are meeting, connecting,
like points of light spelling out words of reason, greeting and respect.

There is only one race: the Human Race.
All difference is Culture.
Respect Culture. Respect Country.
Respect self and respect other,
for the “Other” is always just — You

 

Psalm 15
A psalm of David.

Lord, who may dwell in your sacred house?
Who may live on your holy mountain?

The one whose walk is blameless,
who does what is fair,
who speaks the truth from their heart;
whose tongue utters no slander,
who does no wrong to a neighbour,
and casts no slur on others;
who despises a vile person
but honours those who serve the Lord;
who keeps an oath even when it hurts,
and does not change their mind;
who lends money to the poor without interest;
who does not accept a bribe against the innocent.

Whoever does these things
will never be shaken.

For a year now, we Yindjibarndi people of the Pilbara have been suffering a split in our community engineered with terrible outcomes by the Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) who intend to mine Yindjibarndi country. Despite having Native Title to our homelands, and despite showing Australian courts and the Native Title Tribunal that the Yindjibarndi people – our culture, Law, language and wellbeing – are dependent upon our connection with our ancestral land and water, the never-ending pressure of Fortescue Metals Group continues to devastate our community and our children’s futures.

This is the hard ground.

One bright light illuminates our struggle. Our wonderful Yindjibarndi Elder, Ned Mayinbungu Cheedy, who has for so long been a beacon of strength and a sharer of knowledge among us. His contribution was recognised nationally by the award of the most prestigious NAIDOC 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award. And for Ned, and all of our children, on Tuesday the 6 of September, Yindjibarndi painted up and danced.

Download this Document

ALSO – YINDJIBARNDI STATEMENT:

Yindjibarndi people can not live by mining alone

Download this statement

In his push to mine our country, FMG’s founder, Chairman, and largest shareholder, Twiggy Forrest, tells us that our future lies in getting a job with his company and giving over our country to his mines, but Twiggy’s teaching about how we should be and how we should live does not compare to the teaching of our elders. We know that we cannot live by mining alone. We are finished if we cease to honour the heritage and Ngurra (country) passed on by our ancestors, which speaks to our inner needs and our very being as Yindjibarndi people.

Mining will not dominate our country forever. The huge ore deposits will be exhausted within a few generations and when the minerals are all shipped overseas, mining will be worth nothing and all the money will amount to less than nothing for our future generations.

Our fight against Twiggy Forrest and FMG is not just about our rights as the first people of this Ngurra, it is about doing right by our country and our descendants. We believe that if we keep body and soul together with our country and its unique Yindjibarndi Law and heritage, our Jalurra and language and teaching will be alive long after Mr Forrest and his FMG are gone and forgotten.

The Jalurra we danced for Mr Ned Cheedy in his 105th year, were about remembering and celebrating who we are and where we come from; honouring the knowledge and values of our old people; respecting the country that was and is before mining and money, and which runs deeper than mining, and gives us self respect and true identity.

Earlier this year our beloved elder, 105 year old Mayinbungu (Ned Cheedy), was awarded the most prestigious NAIDOC prize, the Lifetime Achievement Award.

This week (6 September 2011) Juluwarlu Aboriginal Corporation and Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation (YAC) invited people from Roebourne and surrounding towns to Cheeditha Community to celebrate Ned’s honour and to thank him for his enormous contribution to the Yindjibarndi cultural recording and archive projects; and for his leadership and wisdom.

It was a beautiful and very moving evening for some 300 people who attended to share and participate in singing, testimonials, a slide show and traditional dancing.

When The Ground Is Hard, Yindjibarndi Dance.

Also a big thanks to Susan Shirtliff, the board of Ngarliyarndu Bindirri Aboriginal Corporation and the many volunteers who assisted on the day. This event was funded and initiated by NBAC on behalf of Juluwarlu & Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporations.

There were two parades that day. Through the Western gate Pilate entered on a horse accompanied by soldiers in full uniform with banners and drums and the sun glinting on spear and shield, and people watching in sullen silence.

Through the Eastern gate came a protesting procession with Jesus riding a donkey, with the people in the front calling out “Hosanna to the Son of David” and the people at the back responding “Blessed is he who comes in the name of God.” And the people carpeted the road with their cloaks and with palm leaves.

To where was the procession proceeding? To the Temple which had become far more than a place of worship. It was in effect the central bank where loans were negotiated and the mortgage documents were kept.

Two processions and one question. What is more important – the culture of the day or the way of Jesus? What is more important – the clunking machinery of Fortescue Metals or the protests of the indigenous people of Roebourne being ground into the ground?    They ask, for the use of their land, but one half of one percent of uncapped royalty.
The world is the Temple of God and we have made it into a den of thieves.
Two processions and one question. At whose feet will you lay your palms?

(Sermon by Neville Watson, Wembley Downs Uniting Church, 17/4/11)