Jirrbal Elders did not give permission to the proposed Chalumbin wind farm
The wider community of the Atherton Tablelands, including Jirrbal Elders, were not consulted or made aware of the proposed Chalumbin wind farm.
The below videos are of Jirrbal Elders and Custodians who state that they did not give permission nor consider that they were properly consulted on a spiritual or cultural level about the proposed Chalumbin wind farm.
A “Keep Chalumbin Wild” community meeting hosted by Rainforest Reserves Australia on the ecological impacts of the Chalumbin wind development, Ravenshoe, December 2021.
“There are species there in that Rainforest that have never been found. Only by the Indigenous owners. That’s the only reason why we’re standing up to fight all this." : Jirrbal Elder David Carney, Elder Clarence Kinjun and Custodian Georgina Wieden discuss the proposed Chalumbin wind farm.
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Statements recorded at “Keep Chalumbin Wild” community meeting in Tully hosted by Rainforest Reserves Australia on 23rd April 2023.
Georgina Wieden:
This (Chalumbin wind farm) is a well-kept secret in Ravenshoe. It shouldn’t be like that. As an Indigenous person, all Indigenous people need to be consulted on this. They weren’t, but there are claims that they have but they haven’t.
There are Traditional Owners in this room that have sacred stories on that country and none of them was aware of this until I told them. So to me, that is a disgrace. That is a disgrace to the Jirrbal people. We don’t even have enough respect these days because of greed? We can’t respect our Elders and go and talk to them and get their consent? The greed today that the PBC is being promised a lot of money, that greed today is going to kill the future of our Indigenous children.
Our language comes from the country. When that country is gone, our language is gone and so is our identity. So that’s why I’m fighting it. For our Elders and for our future children who will be left with nothing. They won’t even have an identity once this is done.
Epuron (now Ark Energy) says everywhere that they’ve consulted with Traditional Owners. I’ve got a petition that proves otherwise. We’ve got up to 100 signatures. Community consultation? Numbers say differently. And that’s without travelling, without leaving Ravenshoe. Those numbers come from within Ravenshoe. So I’ve been going around and talking to people, and a lot of them say “I didn’t even know that this was happening. What’s going on?” This is the Indigenous people. There is so much sacred knowledge out on that Country, but that doesn’t get brought up. Tully aren’t consulted. There’s plenty of Jirrbal people in Tully, but were they informed? No.
For me, it’s about Traditional and Culture. The Elders, the Ancestors and the children of the future. Money doesn’t even come into it. You can’t replace our culture. You can’t replace the people we are, and the people we could be.
Clarence Kinjun, Gulngay Elder:
We are First Australians. Every day we see our land get taken away and destroyed. And not only that, our people are gone and our heritage is gone with it. What we do grasp, we try to grasp a little bit of it, and still pass it on to our younger generation. It’s not our younger generation, it’s the whole of Australia too. We’re all in it together, and we’ve all got to share this world heritage.
It’s very sad to see this happen in my lifetime. I mean everybody needs electricity, sure. But on the cultural heritage side, we need to protect some of these areas that are most important for the younger generation to keep. There are sites that are sacred to us.
The Tully River story is one known around the world. Just not long ago we’ve had the white water rafting here, and if they take that away from our basin up the top, I’m connected with the Jirrbal country and if that comes down here to Gulngay Country – I work with Terrain and do a lot of water sampling for them and I learnt a lot from them. I learnt that there’s a fracture that runs all the way from the Tablelands all the way down through the Tully rivers. I work with local farmers and try to improve waterways. The farmers tell me they have a limit on how much nitrogen they can put on a cane farm, to protect the Great Barrier Reef. So what happens up there, it’s going to be a ripple effect. When the farms down here trying to do something, and it goes up the headwaters, you just defeat the purpose of trying to look after the Great Barrier Reef.
But on the Aboriginal Culture side, we’d like to still keep our Rainforest and the animals that live there, because some people here, that’s their totem. That’s their story. Once that’s gone, it’s all gone.
But I hope, with a bit more consultation with Aboriginal people, we need for that land to be culturally surveyed. I don’t see any maps where sacred sites have been marked…we mustn’t forget the massacre sites there. It’s really important to us.
We’ve all got to work together, and if we don’t pull together, we’re all going to lose out in the end. Georgina said “Money is only for a short time, it’s not a long time. And when the money’s gone, that’s it. And you sell your culture out just for a few windmills.
I hope for my Jirrbal people that the decision is made that they do not build this wind farm up there. As a Gulngay Traditional Owner, I hope it never comes to having those great turbines up there. I hope the politicians can still understand that.
David Carney, Jirrbal Elder:
About Chalumbin, all along there where they’re going to put the wind turbines, all that along there is sacred sites, all the way along there. Right back behind Yourka, from Wooroora Station, to Blunder Park, to Yourka station and so forth right back around behind Curra. All up there is sacred sites, all the burial grounds along those tracks. And the reason why we don’t want that to go ahead, is because of the flora and fauna.
There are species there in that Rainforest that have never been found. Only by the Indigenous owners. That’s the only reason why we’re standing up to fight all this. Because we do not want that to go ahead. All we ask is that you leave the Rainforest alone, that it’s going to be there for future generations and life after life after life after life.But why take out somebody else’s home? Would you like anybody come and knocking your house down? Well that’s how the animals feel. Would you like to go there and knock their place down - they’ll come and knock your place down. You’re going to get wild. You’re going to set traps – kill them, wipe them out. That’s more or less what they’re doing to us. Wiping us out one by one. Each day every day. Thank you all for listening.
”…you take away that Country, you’re taking away the essence. And the essence is what teaches us how to be Jirrbal people.” Interview with Jirrbal Elder Patricia Mitchell and Georgina Wieden on the Indigenous Land Use Agreement (ILUA) meeting to facilitate the proposed Chalumbin wind farm.
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On May 7, 2022 a meeting was held by Wabubadda Aboriginal Corporation for Jirrbal people to vote on rezoning 204 square kilometres of Jirrbal Native Title land from Pastoral to Industrial in order to enable the construction of the proposed Chalumbin wind farm. During the meeting, the Indigenous Land Use Agreement was voted on successfully and the land was legally rezoned as Industrial.
Ravenshoe based Jirrbal Elder Patricia Mitchell and Jirrbal community member Georgina Wieden both attended the meeting. Both women oppose the Chalumbin wind farm on Cultural Heritage grounds and both raised serious concerns about the nature of the meeting and the lack of consultation with Jirrbal community about the Chalumbin wind farm.Interviewed by Carolyn Emms of Rainforest Reserves Australia in Cairns, Far North Queensland on 15th May 2022.
Georgina Wieden (GW): We attended a ILUA [Indigenous Land Use Agreement] meeting in Ravenshoe on the 7th May last Saturday (2022) from 9 till 4 and it was about changing it from Pastoral to Industrial land use. Some of the things that happened in that meeting were questionable. Their - the entire meeting was about money. There wasn’t – umm - no mention of Cultural Heritage. There was no mention of what will happen to the Country if this goes ahead, if they do change it. Yeah, there wasn’t any discussion around the outcome of - what would happen to the country if they change this land use from Pastoral to Industrial but there was talk about what would happen if they didn’t go ahead with the deal. So they pretty much said “if we don’t go ahead with this deal, someone else could get it and we’d still miss out” you know. This is what they’re telling the people.
The meeting was – what is it – facilitated by North Queensland Land Council. So they’re telling people, they’re not telling them the consequences of going ahead with this deal but they’re ok to tell them the consequences if they don’t go ahead with this deal. So it’s pretty much saying that “well if we don’t get it, someone else will”. Someone else will be sitting there picking up the profits.
There was all up in that room, because it was voted, there was 44 [Jirrbal community members]. And the vote went against us 33 to 11. But you had to be there to vote, or Zoom. Which was kind of ridiculous because Elders don’t know how to work Zoom. They can’t just “Alright Saturday morning, I’m going to a meeting at 9 o’clock in the morning”, so it was – how do you say – bias, I guess. Discriminatory. It was –
Patricia Mitchell (PM) : Disrespectful as well –
GW: Yeah.
PM: Towards the Jirrbal people themselves.
GW: It wasn’t about Jirrbal people and Traditional Owners. It was about Wabubadda getting this deal. They just used the Traditional Owners to put on paper to make this deal cross the line.
PM: You vote “Yes”, you’ll get a house, you’re promised a house and whatever you want. This is – the bribes were towards the younger people, the younger generation.
GW: They’re doing this whole thing under the onus that it’s all to do with the Jirrbal claim number 4. So if Jirrbal doesn’t get in there now, in the door with Epuron, this is their story, if they don’t get in there now and make this deal with Epuron, there’s another tribe contesting Jirrbal claim number 4. Which is to claim that area. So they’re – this is the story they’re going with – that if Wabubadda doesn’t get there, make this deal, then this other tribe could move in and make the deal.
CE: So if you’re not a member, you would have missed out. Is that - ?
GW: That’s right. We wouldn’t have got the newsletter and the letter to say that this meeting was on. I found out because one of my Elders showed me the letter.
CE: Yes.
GW: And the newsletter.
CE: Yes, yes. So how many Jirrbal people weren’t represented?
PM: Lots. Yeah. Just because a lot of them didn’t know, receive the, what do you call it, the notice for this meeting. They weren’t notified and so that’s how they would have missed out on the vote.
GW: And there was no transport provided, you know. This should have been on every billboard in Ravenshoe. This is how important this is. This is –
PM: Mm.
GW: This could take our culture off the map, possibly. That’s how important it is and they should have had it advertised in every possible space they could in Ravenshoe before this meeting and there was nothing.
And they said it plain and clear, you cannot vote unless you are there, and then even the voting hey, that was a – what do you call that – that was a – there wasn’t enough time to think. There wasn’t enough time to process it.
PM: Yeah.
GW: There was 6…
PM: Resolutions.
GW: There was 6 resolutions to vote on. Half the room didn’t even know what the hell they were voting on. I mean, the people in Wabubadda did and they’re all “yes, yes, yes” and us people who didn’t know hadn’t seen these resolutions before are looking at each other like -, so we just pretty much sustained or voted against everything, or voted against everything. We didn’t really understand what these bloody resolutions meant.
CE: Mm.
GW: And there wasn’t time for that. They gave us – they read them out, then we had a break, and then we come back and it was voting time. That’s it. So people are voting on things they don’t really understand and –
PM: Yeah.
GW: I looked around the room when they were asked one particular question, hey. “Were you given insufficient information in regards to this, why this deal – we want this deal to go ahead” or whatever-
PM: Native title number 4.
GW: Yeah. And I’m looking at them and they’re putting their hand up, but they’re not even sure. But they’re doing it because they want this deal to go ahead. And I’m like “these people don’t even know what they’re voting on.”
They said you’re only allowed to share this with your close families in discussion. Close family members, eh, in discussion. But we didn’t sign any bloody confidentiality thing.
It was – the whole day was confidentiality and money.
PM: The resolutions weren’t explained properly or thoroughly. Nobody was asked if they fully understood.
GW: I would want - we would want to have a lawyer because in things like this, there is someone there who is onto it. And completely understands what they’re doing, and we didn’t pick up until after the fact ‘cos it just went so fast. “Oh, we’ll confuse these people.”
PM: Yeah.
GW: “They don’t understand, so we’ll confuse them and then they’ll just go with the flow. Because they can’t get it. They can’t grasp it.” That’s what happened to us. We knew. We knew we were going in there to say ‘No’, but we didn’t know how to say ‘No’.
I um – I speak to people and I show ‘em pictures, you know. The folders you (CE) gave me, I was going around showing people, and they’re going “Yeah, they shouldn’t go ahead with it. They’re effing this and that” and, you know, and then I show them the pictures and then they just lose it. They have steam coming out of their ears because they just can’t believe it, you know. So I don’t think, other than what we’ve been doing, I don’t think they’ve actually been telling them the other side.
PM: No.
GW: I really don’t. It’s too quiet. Now if Indigenous people don’t like something, they’re going to make noise. That’s just how we work. We make noise and a lot of it. It’s too quiet. So I don’t believe they know the other side.
PM: Because there’s got to be camping grounds there where the old people walk about, and artefacts, and there’s got to be bones there too. From where I went a couple of months ago, I want to go back there and look for – look down the bottom of the rock, of the clifftop thing. And I’d said to my sisters “there’s got to be bones here. There’s got to be.”
GW: What use is a – hold on, I’ve just got to take a breath here and control my anger.
CE: That’s ok.
GW: What use are Rangers, Jirrbal Rangers that don’t have Jirrbal Country to work on? Hello common sense?
And like, with the cultural significance, there’s the Creation story there. There is, and I don’t know how Wabubadda doesn’t know this, there is a Rainbow Serpent trapped in Koombooloomba dam. That is one of our stories. It is trapped in Koombooloomba dam. You go in there on a certain day and you’ll see it. My mum and my grandad always told me, that there’s a Rainbow Serpent and all her babies in there. On certain days you can see it, and I’ve seen it. And I only just remembered this a couple of weeks ago when me and my uncle were talking about it. I’m about 16, 17 and I’m sitting there on the wall at Koombooloomba, on the rocks where we usually go, we climb over, we go sit down, this water is like, almost like a dark aqua underneath. And the whole top of this water, the sun’s beaming down, but the whole top of this water is like sparkly stars. I have seen it with my own eyes.
And I only remembered that day when me and my uncle were talking about it, discussing this Rainbow Serpent. And I’m going “Holy crap, I’ve seen it. I have actually seen it.” So it’s not only that, and then you’ve got, you’ve got the trees-the scar trees that have shields marked into them. There’s another one with a little fella which was probably initiation, I don’t know. That’s men’s business. So you’ve got them. There’s tool quarries, there’s camps. It’s endless. Where do you stop? They’ll be birthing places, they’ll be burial places.
They’ll be, you know, there was a practice of burying the placenta after birth. Burying the placenta on Country. That’s what the old ladies did. I was the first one to do that with my son in 40 years, 40 odd years, when my son was born 7 years ago. So there’s those kinds of things you’ve got to consider.
There might have been a tree, there might have been a rock, or there might have been a certain waterhole, you know, this is where we go. Because bringing that placenta back on Country and planting it means this child will never lose it’s way. It will always come back to home, no matter what, you know. And it’s that spiritual connection to Country that they will always have. And you take away that Country, you’re taking away the essence. And the essence is what teaches us how to be Jirrbal people. Because it doesn’t talk to our person, it talks to our spirit. You know, you take that away then what do we have left?
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Jirrbal Elder Patricia Mitchell interviewed by Carolyn Emms of Rainforest Reserves Australia on 3.01.23 in Ravenshoe, Far North Queensland.
CE: Were you consulted about Chalumbin wind farm?
PM: No. No, no.
CE: Did you feel free to speak your mind on the 7th of May last year [at the ILUA meeting for Chalumbin wind farm]?
PM: I thought it was – I was wasting my time if I did. Nobody listened. Nobody took your thoughts into consideration so yeah, no. No good.
CE: So did you feel free to speak freely about the values that are important to you?
PM: No. No whatsoever.
CE: And what is important to you?
PM: Looking after the land and the animals and everything that is on your land to take care of as a Custodian.
CE: Were cultural and spiritual aspects covered at the meeting?
PM: No, no.
CE: Did you feel your opinion was respectfully sought?
PM: No.
CE: How would you feel if Chalumbin wind farm was approved?
PM: Just devastated and heartbroken to know, knowing that you’re just not being heard. Your voice is not being heard as a Custodian. You’d think you’d have a right, but you don’t have a right, really.
CE: Were cultural and spiritual aspects covered at the meeting?
PM: No, nothing whatsoever. No.
CE: And what was the meeting about?
PM: They were just telling us of the benefits, what, how we could benefit from these things. And they didn’t seem to see the cultural side of how, how the land would end up after being destroyed.
CE: How do you think it would affect you if Chalumbin wind farm was approved?
PM: Heartbroken, as when I first heard about it. It just can’t happen. It’s the wrong place. Yeah.
CE: OK. And what about future Jirrbal people? How do you think they’d be affected?
PM: Yeah well upset, pretty angry about it all that we can’t, we probably won’t be able to go out onto Country. Yeah. It’s not, it won’t end good.
CE: Thanks very much Trish.
“Devastated and heartbroken to know …you’re just not being heard”: Jirrbal Elder Patricia Mitchell on the Chalumbin wind farm.
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Interviewed 3rd January 2023 by Carolyn Emms, Rainforest Reserves Australia.
Carolyn Emms: What do you think about the future of Jirrbal people?
Your people, if Chalumbin wind farm goes ahead?
Georgina Wieden: That is the last place that is full of cultural and spiritual connection to Country via Jirrbal people . That place holds the last of our Knowledge. Because everything else has been destroyed by industry and farming and commercial. Our culture is already on a knife's edge. If that's destroyed, it could go either way.
CE: Georgina, if I can just ask if Jirrbal Elders were consulted about Chalumbin?
GW: No. Most of them were notified by me. Because that's Lore. Permission needs to come from the Elders. Elders have the first and the last say and that's the way it is. That's Lore. And I knew that my Elders didn't know because no one mentioned it me. And when I asked them if they knew they said No. Didn't known nothing about it. What's going on.
CE: Did you-?
GW: Then they asked me who's doing it and I said I'm not sure yet. I don't know. All I know is they're talking about a wind farm at Chalumbin.
CE: Did you feel free to speak your mind on the 7th of May last year (at the Chalumbin ILUA meeting?)
GW: No. Mostly because you're in a room full of people who've spent hours and hours hearing about money. The financial benefits. The financial gain rather than - I don't think there was once where it was mentioned about what we stand to lose. What we could lose with this going ahead. It was a one-sided meeting and you could have talked but no one would have listened because the whole entire thing was about the financial benefits.
CE: Were cultural and spiritual aspects covered?
GW: No.
They said that there were a team of people that were going to go out and mark sites but these people don't have the knowledge to go and mark sites. They don't know the walking tracks. They've never sat down and spoke to the old people and learned the stories, you know.
CE: Can you access Chalumbin today?
GW: Yes. Now, yes we can.
CE: And how do you think you'd be impacting, your people would be impacted if Chalumbin wind farm went ahead?
GW: Our people would be losing part of their home. We originate from that rainforest. We don't originate from Ravenshoe town.
We come from that rainforest.
The old people traveled with the seasons, you know.
They kept moving so places wouldn't be fished out. Or when they build their houses, the place wouldn't become bare because they overused it. Yeah, they come this way, but they go back. They belong in the rainforest. We are the rainforest people. That's why we've got close connections down the range. Because them old people used to travel up and down that range.
All through that rainforest. Right out to Curraghmore Station, you know.
CE: Can you access Kaban wind farm, Georgina?
GW: No. White man took over now we don't even have any more rights. Do they walk in and tell us who can and can't be out on our own Country?
CE: And who are the Wabubadda Board?
GW: I have no idea. I never heard of them before. I grew up in Ravenshoe you know. Between Ravenshoe and Tully. And I spent a lot of my childhood with all the old people. I don't know who the hell they are. I've never heard of them before. I don't know where they come from.
CE: Are they Jirrbal?
GW: No idea.
CE: Ok.
GW: I never heard of them. But when I was growing up with my old people, I make connections and I know where people come from but I never heard of them.
CE: Did any of the Elders give permission?
GW: No.
CE: And were they consulted?
GW: They weren't consulted. They didn't give permission.
They weren't even, it really wasn't even an afterthought. It was just push push go ahead, like. When I found out, it had already been in negotiation since 2019 and we found out in September, not 22, 2021. No 2021. It was the 16th of September, the first community information session, and I remember that because I had one of my Elders out on Country. And when, and I rang my mum and David Carney and I said "Get to this meeting". We can't go, you need to get there." Because I couldn't come back from Curraghmore Station, I had one of my Elders out there. And that well I'd planned that months ahead of time to go out at that time, so I couldn't just pack up and come back because we'd only got there 2 days before and it's too much. That's a long trip to bring an Elder just in for a meeting, and we didn't have reception to go live, to get someone to put us there live. But it had been going on since 2019. So yeah, it was September 2021.
CE: Were there any cultural or spiritual aspects covered at the meeting?
GW: Only what I, they only said they're going to get people to walk out there and then only what I mentioned. And I said "who's going to go and get these sites? Who's going to mark these sites and who's going to protect them?" That's what I want to know. Who's protecting the Cultural Heritage out there? And then "oh well Wabubadda have a team for that." And I said "you don't need a team, you need to talk to the Elders. The Elders need to oversee it." It needs to be done by them because only they know. They know there's, it's not just a matter of walking up and saying "that was a campsite" or "that was a burial site" or " that was a birthing place" or "that was an initiation place". There is ceremony that needs to be conducted. Before you even enter there, you need to talk and you need to practice Cultural Lore before entering and exiting those places. You can't just say, walk on Country and think you have the right to be there because you don't.
CE: So do you give consent to Chalumbin wind farm going ahead?
GW: No I don't.
CE: Ok.
GW: It's, you know, it's not only about the destruction and the pollution and how ugly it's going to be. It's about our spiritual connections to our home. Our land. You know, that's our belonging. That's where we belong. Where do we belong if we don't have Country to belong to. Our belonging is to Country and our spiritual connection to that. Material things mean nothing to us. When we want to heal, when the old people are sick and want to heal, they look for Country. They want to go back on Country. They want to go camping, they want to go hunting. You know, they want to eat the traditional food they grew up with. We're not going to have that. It's part of us, it's part of our being. If we don't have that, then what do we have.
And culture is dying and this is just speeding it up. Have we come thousands and thousands of years just to destroy ourselves? Colonisation tried, you know. White man tried for thousands of years. And we're just going to do it to ourselves? We fought, the old people fought and died for years and years just so we can go and do it to ourselves? Willingly hand over the knife or the gun or whatever the hell they use?
CE: But did the Elders give consent?
GW: No!
CE: And did they - were they consulted, were the Elders consulted?
GW: They weren't consulted. They weren't even notified. They didn't even have an inkling that this was on the drawing board. You know. No.
“Permission needs to come from the Elders. They get the first and the last say”: Jirrbal Custodian Georgina Wieden on Chalumbin wind farm.
“I am a young Jirrbal Custodian. With the proposed Chalumbin Wind Farm, I feel angry more than anything that I didn’t get any information about it. I didn’t have a clue about it, and still I have not a clue about what is happening today, because I feel this is wrong. It’s just not the right way.
I am really concerned about the future, because I want to go on country for the future, to walk on country I do not want to be denied, to have people say that I “what are you doing here”. I want to see the land out there, to connect with country. I don’t want to be asked if I have permission to go on country. I have deep spirutal connections, for me it is like a calming, a big relief when I am out there on Chalumbin. I can forget about things.
It clears my mind, I feel the old people, I feel everything. The culture is very powerful for me. I feel if they were real Traditional Owners, they would not allow this destruction. I just don’t understand how it got approved by State Government. I would like Chalumbin to be protected, just left. How do I put this, just want it left alone, to see it remain beautiful, full of life. That’s just the main thing, just left alone.
I have been out there summertime, we go for our usual swims at Charmillan Creek. I need the land to give us the stories, our culture, our land, that is us. Without the land, we would be nothing. No Jirrbal land, no culture. The respect for the land, the people, the culture, the animals, it’s just fading and soon it will just disappear.
I’d like to see the young Jirrbal people learn respect, and this can only be learnt on country. You can’t teach respect in school. Going on Country teaches respect for Elders. I want to see Elders and Ancestors acknowledged.
I know about the massacres out there, at the falls, it makes me sick to my stomach, that it’s not respected. It’s a burial ground, it’s just a lack of respect. As a Jirrbal Custodian, I do not consent to the destruction of Jirrbal country, land, and culture. I am proud of my culture, my country I love and Chalumbin needs to be protected.”
- Keith Kennedy, Jirrbal Custodian
The trauma of Kaban wind development and the proposed Chalumbin wind development: Jirrbal Elder Carol Carney
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Interviewed by Carolyn Emms (Rainforest Reserves Australia) on 3.01.23 in Ravenshoe, Far North Queensland.
Carol Carney (CC): I’m Carol Carney and I’m an Elder Jirrbal or Jirrbal Elder and I’m happy to be interviewed and I feel terrible about what they’re doing. Waking up thinking what’s out – you know, out in our land, what they’re doing to our land.
Carolyn Emms (CE): How do you feel as an Elder waking up to Kaban wind farm every day?
CC: Terrible. I think it’s – I keep thinking about all the old people. You know, and, it just makes me wild, what they did. Make me feel – I can’t come to my – think about them old people all the time. It’s not right. What’s right and what’s wrong. And that’s not right, what they did.
CE: So what about your Custodial obligations? How do you feel about Chalumbin wind farm, as a Custodian?
CC: Disgusted. I’m disgusted about that, yeah. That too yeah. Even for the Great Barrier Reef. They’re going to spoil that, even.
I just feel, no good, you know for them doing that, because of our Ancestors. I want to live by my Ancestor’s Lore and keep it Tradition and that.
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PM: Hello. Patricia Mitchell here again. I'm a true Jirrbal Custodian.
CE: Trish, how do you think you would feel about waking up everyday to see Kaban wind farm? How do you feel about it?
PM: Not good at all. It's a sorry, saddest sight you could see. So close. We know, yeah, it's just not a nice thing to see. To be looking at everyday. I'd prefer to have- yeah looking at tallest trees, and plants and animals. Anything but a wind turbine.
CE: And what do you feel as a Custodian of the land, to see these wind turbines?
PM: Very let down and well devastated as well to know that these things, horrible things that just being placed on your country, that you don't want those things there at all, ever.
CE: Trish were you ever consulted about Kaban wind farm as an Elder?
PM: No, no. No, not at all.
CE: Were any of the Elders consulted about Kaban wind farm?
PM: No, they may have been but they would have told them that No, we don't want those horrible things here.
“Saddest sight you could see”: Patricia Mitchell, Jirrbal Elder on Kaban wind farm
Kaban wind development is located in Kaban, near Ravenshoe on the Atherton Tablelands, Far North Queensland. This is Jirrbal Country. Now 28 wind turbines are being installed on critical habitat here at great distress to some Jirrbal Elders. The hurt over what has been done at Kaban is significant - it is an ongoing weeping wound to many.