Police arrest Jim & Aaron Everett and three other protestors on the 17th April for holding a smoking ceremony at Kutalyana (Jordan River Levee) and for breaching their bail conditions. They were merely trying to save their heritage from the bulldozers who are constructing the Brighton Bypass and destroying a site that contains evidence of Aboriginal occupation of Tasmania going back as far as 42,000 years.
Tasmanian Aboriginal Council legal field officer Sara Maynard was quoted in the Mercury Newspaper as sayinig:
“It is shameful that the Tasmanian Government is using the police to come out here with such force and arrest five of our members,’’ she said.
“Today was about the beginning of healing, we had no intention to interfere with any works, it was just about ceremony.
“We told the police that that was why we were here, and they had a real opportunity to show some discretion and work with the Aboriginal community.
“But instead, they arrested those who had returned to their own land for a healing ceremony, it’s just disgusting.’’
Video of the arrests can be seen here on Youtube
Below is an article reflecting on the smoking ceremony and arrests from the Tasmanian Times
Returning from Kutalayna
Nicole Pietsch. 21.04.11
Now, the dark clouds hang on the horizon, and after the events of the day mother nature reflects.
After returning from Kutalayna the mood has been incredibly sombre, and I have faced the evening tasks with a heavy heart, my mind unable to redirect itself away from the harsh realities of the world I exist in.
It’s a world where there is progress, destruction, construction at any cost, and if you have the money and the machinery and guns then there is nothing that anyone else can do about it.
Standing there at the camp, surrounded by big machines and the multitude of police protecting them, the situation couldn’t be any clearer. Of course some still hang on to the hope that the bridge can be stopped, but they have to otherwise where is the impetus to carry on?
It’s like the forests, and the oceans, and all the other places that remain intact which we are trying so hard to save – of course we have to believe that one day somehow the destruction will cease, but the reality is it continues on unabated and more intensely than ever. Our slivers of hope is all that keeps us working on.
The healing ceremony led by Uncle Jim, and some of the other key people who had been arrested on Friday, was in itself quite amazing – and the first ceremony I have been involved in here in Tasmania with the First Peoples. There was a real acknowledgement of standing together, of facing the forces that seem intent on destroying whatever is held sacred, and as the smoke billowed out onto the plains from the fires lit it felt a really important moment in time, both for the land and for us all.
But it was also real sad too. There were many people crying, obviously devastated by losing yet another piece of the little tangible history they have left, as the truth of the roaring machines in the background brought the reality into sharp focus - there would have to be a miracle to stop the bridge now. The 100 people standing there were not going to be able to do it – it would need 100,000, and how in the hell could we ever achieve that?
Make that many people care enough to take a step away from their everyday lives to stand up for what is right, what is necessary, seems in these times insurmountable – and in that then how could we ever stop the force of civilisation from ravaging this island, without care for the impact on it’s peoples and the impact on all of our futures?
Standing there on the edge of the Jordan river I looked around and tried to get a sense of what it must have been like before the boats first came – and I could sense glimpses of it’s history as I looked across to the rocky outcliffs on the hills and then across to the Wellington ranges. But the river itself was full of rubbish, and the trees all gone, there’s the railway track and the ugly suburban houses, the fences and of course the increasing encroachment of the machinery and cement – the site itself has been pretty devastated over the years since white settlement. Of course you could perhaps understand why people would think there is nothing there worth saving, with little visible remnants of existence left it could be easy to forget and discount what actually has happened here.
But it’s what is under the ground here that’s important. The layers of sediment that hold the history of 42,000 years of living on the land, a time period that is almost incomprehensible to me and probably to many others who fail to grasp the importance of such a site – not just in a spiritual and cultural context, but also scientifically as well. It’s a piece in the puzzle of human existence, it tells a story from way before the pyramids and Jesus Christ and definitely the Female Factory that the Government is so keen to preserve - that alone is reason enough to save that site from further destruction.
Regardless of the money needed to reroute the highway you would think that the people, that the Government, would rather save this amazing heritage than destroy potentially one of the oldest such sites in Australia. But no it’s full steam ahead – regardless of what and who gets steamed through. There is no humanity in it – and again I question how us humans could have strayed so far from the path of truth, from what sustains us? Surely this 42,000 year old site can offer some insights?
When the police arrested Jim and Aaron and the others at the end it really was the icing on the cake of this shameful episode – making a point to show where the real power lies when of course we already know it. There was no humanity in that either – just a cold hard outlook on the world that is both creepy and chilling.
Tonight it has felt like our hope is lost and that the darker forces have won – that all our prayers, hopes, good intentions and efforts will not be able to change things. The news, it tells me that in America there has been the worst tornadoes on record – something like 70 all spinning and whirling a path through North Carolina - destroying everything and everyone in their path. Mother nature can be cold and indiscriminate too, and this will only intensify as humans keep heading down this blindly destructive path, destroying environments and what is held most sacred.
But now I remember the fire, and the ceremony, and standing there with the people, for that was the strongest point of the day. It is what I will hold fast to as I go to sleep, because there definitely was humanity in that. There was connection, and truth and humility and love, and really that is all I aspire to. In my mind I send out my love and support to all those people who stood there with me, for regardless of the fact that we have no choice in where we come from in this world, we all have a choice in who we are right now, and in choosing to stand there at Kutalayna today we all chose to stand up for what is right and true, and in doing so are connected.