Nambucca Heads on the Mid North of NSW.
We, The Gumbaynggirr Traditional Owners and Custodians need your support to stop the logging of The Nambucca State Forest. These are our Gumbaynggirr traditional homelands and our cultural heritage.
The NSW Forestry Corporation must conduct a Cultural Heritage Survey and consult with Gumbaynggirr Traditional Owners and the local Aboriginal Lands Council before logging. Proper consultation with the Gumbaynggirr Custodians and or community has not been carried out.
A few years ago Gumbaynggirr Custodians were handed back our land through Native Title. It was called the Gaagal Wanggaan National Park Native Title Claim. These lands are apart of the Nambucca State Forest. It seems the Government is giving us selective land back to jointly manage with strings attached then taking land and destroying it by logging. The timber is being sent to China and to make power poles in Australia.
We the Gumbaynggirr Custodians want to set up a sustainable Gumbaynggirr camp in the State Forest to assert our cultural authority and protest against the logging of our sacred land and protect the home for so many of our precious animals and beautiful native trees. We will have Gumbaynggirr Traditional owners, elders, community and family that need to come together and talk culture business and make a plan to fight for our rights and hold The NSW Forestry accountable and most importantly STOP THE LOGGING.. It will be a peaceful, safe space where we will be practising our culture on our country. The Embassy will be open to anyone who wants to sit and yarn and support us.
We need funds to buy supplies such as:
Generator
Tents
Food Supplies
Water
Gas Cooker
second hand couches
materials to make signs
petrol
Our plan for how all the donations will be spent or handled?
We have set a the protest camp in the Nambucca State Forest logging site. This a very significant area for traditional Gumbaynggirr Custodians such as myself, local environmentalists, activists and community to come together and camp. We had a traditional Gumbaynggirr ceremony and lit the sacred fire two weeks ago which is still burning. It is a hub to exchange information, build unified alliance, legal case and protest the logging of our precious native forest. We have raised funds for the following items: port a loo rental for 6 weeks, food supplies for up 40 people, firewood, tarp, torches, tents, materials to make protest signs, water, petrol to pick and drop of elders, petrol for volunteers running errands and picking up supplies catering for meetings, legal fees, hire of a video camera, editor to make a content for our social media campaign, flights to Sydney for court cases, transport, accomodation, supplies for the reconciliation walk from the protest camp to sacred sites in the forest of the last day of reconciliation week, materials for cultural workshops (weaving material)
Our connection to the intended recipient(s) of your campaign’s donations.
I am the organiser of the Gumbaynggirr tent embassy. I set it up. The recipients are Gumbaynggirr relations, colleagues, fellow activists, community members.
Anything else that might help your community better understand the purpose of your campaign The NSW forestry Corporation are logging 200 hectares of native forest without consultation with the traditional Custodians of Gumbaynggirr country or with any environmental or ecologist groups – no official surveys of the land has been done. The Gumbaynggirr Custodians and environmental groups have formed an alliance and have created a space (the tent site) to camp and protest for up 3 months to get international coverage and put pressure on he Government. We have also logged a legal case with the land and environmental court to demand an interlockatry injunction.
Lets stand together to say no more destruction of our beautiful homelands.
