NYUNGAH CIRCLE OF ELDERS
c/o PO GUILDFORD WESTERN AUSTRALIA
T: 08 9377 3550, 08 9279 6706 F:08 9377 3559
The Last of the Nyungah Elders who are standing to Save and Protect our Ancient Religion and Culture and Sacred Beliefs in the Land and not take money to sell our Sacredness
Alan Padgett
The Manager
Indigenous Land Corporation
Today, the First of October 2007, I inspected the Pyrton Land, drove right through the whole of the area, and took notice of all the area where the buildings were, and they are all gone.
To me as a Traditional Elder who holds Native Title in the area with my Family Clan and other Family Clans of the Swan River and Swan Coastal Plains, I see the Land now, from my point of view it is red ripe for the white man’s high living buildings of houses and flats.
I say that this was in the pipeline a long time ago with the Government, and especially Martin Whitely is pushing the development on to the place over and above us the Indigenous Inhabitants, the People of the Area. (Note that housing was proposed in 1998, and we are the people who succeeded with the WA Planning Commission in putting a stop to that housing plan because of our Sacredness and Culture and Heritage in the Land. We are the People who stopped the Prison being built on Pyrton because of our Sacredness and Culture. We had the support of the local People and Bassendean Council and Clive Brown who was the then local Member of Parliament. It was then that the ILC first began to be interested in our ideas, and funded the Land Use Structure Plan based on our plans.
We have grown up in the area when it was all bushland, and our People before us from generation to generation and we stood at Lockridge.
On the last time you met us, with Martin Whitely and a few others and there was no friendliness or respect in Martin’s attitude, and I would say that you weren’t understanding us properly for what we the Traditional Owners were trying to explain to you on behalf of our Family Clans and the concerns on behalf of the whole of the Nyungah people.
The Indigenous Land Corporation is a Government body which is supposed to represent us the Aboriginal People as a whole.
I would say in this case you are ignoring us to some extent when we want to talk about the Pyrton Land and we want it for the use of the Nyungah People of the Swan River and Swan Coastal Plains, and the south-west and north and east as a whole.
We are asking for our Land back so we can build and set up the Nyungah Cultural University and show State and Federal Governments our capabilities of what we can do. We are entitled to plan our destiny ( see the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People finally passed by the General Assembly of the United Nations after over 20 years, that Nyungah ElderClarrie Isaacs RIP was part of, on 13 September 2007). The Indigenous Land Corporation is just a false front if you don’t help us and people like us with our Land.
It is our Blackfella values, our Ties and our Sense of Belonging and our Suffering for standing up and being knocked down time and again, and refused help by State and Federal Governments, and people like Martin Whitely and the hidden agenda of what he is pushing for the State Government, with political players behind the scene planning and plotting how to build on and destroy our Sacredness and Culture in the Pyrton Land.
We call on you again to meet with us in all fairness and give us the opportunity and the chance to speak to you properly.
Martin Whitely is directing the State Government away from us and not towards us and it is our Sacred Grounds. It is where we gave evidence to Justice Wilcox which won recognition of our Native Title by the the Federal Court .
We call on you, will you try to entice Martin Whitely to support us and not act against us?
We the Sufferers and the Traditional Owners are waiting on you to give us the right answer that we are expecting to hear from you.
for
Combined Swan River and Swan Coastal Plains Nyungah Elders - Native Title Holders and Traditional Owners