We Are Country, Country Is Us

We assert the First Nations traditional concept of Law in Country and that We Are Law Keepers of Country. Or more direct: We Are Country, Country Is Us.

Ruth Langford/Tipruthanna, Cody Gangell, Carleeta Thomas protect Country, Eastern Tiers Lutruwita/Tasmania, 21 January 2025.

Footage Ramji Ambrosiussen/Bob Brown Foundation

Uncle Jim Everett in a hat, scarf and t-shirt that reads Lutruwita Tasmania has a Black history standing beside old growth logs protesting native forest logging | Tell the Truth

Jim Everett puralia meenamatta

I am a Plangermairreenner from Meenamatta Country in the north-east Midlands of Lutruwita/Tasmania.

Law in Country is what governs me, and I do what I do because it’s the truth. I stand firm on our Law in Country.

I do not recognise any colonial authority over me because I am not an Australian citizen. I am a Palawa First Nation citizen and the Australian-British colonial laws that I challenge have no jurisdiction to arrest me for defending my Law in Country from ongoing destruction of our natural world.

portrait Jillian Mundy; mangana Eric Woehler; #StandWithUncJim #TellTheTruth

Mangana or yellow-tailed black cockatoo in flight, which is Uncle Jim Everett's totem | Tell the Truth

“This arrest shows how flawed the current colonial system is.

The real criminals are the government agencies who are destroying our precious waterways, exposing us to potentially catastrophic fires and failing to protect endangered species in their homes.

I am devastated to be arrested under colonial law. However, I am heartened to feel the strength of Palawa Law in Country.

It’s time to find another way that acknowledges our cultural obligation to protect a living life force.

The minister, police commissioner and prosecutor should not be wasting public funds by charging Aboriginal people who are protecting Country.

The colonial courts and institutions have no jurisdiction over Aboriginal people protecting Law in Country.

Carleeta, Cody and I are grateful for the support from the Bob Brown Foundation and for all frontline activists who hear the call of Uncle Jim.

It’s time to act now.

As we draw close to Invasion Day, we must all ask ourselves – what Law/Lore and ways of being do we as a society want to follow?”

Yorta Yorta and Dja Dja Wurrung woman Ruth Langford/Tipruthanna recorded these reflections on the way back to Nipaluna following her release from Swansea Police Station after being arrested in Eastern Tiers forest for protecting Country.

21 January 2025

Photo Ramji Ambrosiussen

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Why we care

That which gives us life must be protected.

As Palawa, our obligations to protect our living cultural landscapes mean we have always cared for Country here in Lutruwita. Colonial practices, such as native forest logging, have a devastating effect on us but also negatively impact everyone now living here. We envision a future where mainstream Tasmanian society also values and partakes in Community-led sustainable environmental stewardship.

41,095ha of native forest in Lutruwita/Tasmania is slated for logging in 2024 to 2027. This amounts to an area larger than Lunawuni/Bruny Island gone in four years. Cool temperate rainforests, for example, take over 1,500 years to regenerate.

Our forests are home to thousands of species, and a 2024 report by The Tree Projects reveals that over 300,000 animals are killed or displaced every year due to native forest logging and subsequent coupe burning, culling and roadkill. Logging diminishes the quality of our air and waterways and decreases biodiversity.

The negative consequences of native forest logging are countless. And, after all that destruction, 77% of the whole biomass is either left on the forest floor or trucked to woodchip mills for overseas export.

‘Tasmania’ has abundant plantations to meet its commercial timber needs and provide ample employment. We care about a healthy economy and if state and federal governments truly cared about the environment and the welfare of all workers in the logging industry, they’d have already implemented transition plans to secure long-term sustainable plantation-based employment.

Statistics Bob Brown Foundation & Tasmanian Wilderness Society

This is not just an Aboriginal issue, this is everybody’s issue. We’ve got to protect these forests, we’re going to protect our waters and our seas.

Uncle Jim Everett puralia meenamatta

Spiritual Places

There's just the trees and rocks and ground,

with maybe a creek come bubbling down.

The grass and flowers, the sky and clouds,

and sometimes the spirits in darkish shrouds,

A sacred place of all our ways,

of all our spirits at this one place.

Yet over there, not far from here,

and even further in this sphere,

are other sites our spirits dwell,

for all time our people’s will.

But those who are not of our kind,

who drain our knowledge with white minds,

and take it all and give back nought,

yet call themselves the experts taught,

are thieves who take a heritage ours,

and twist it so we lose our powers.

So onward comes the desecration,

ruining the churches of our nation.

For the whites they are resource,

with no spiritual sacred source.

But to us they’re trees, rocks and ground,

with maybe a creek come bubbling down.

The grass and flowers. the sky and clouds,

And sometimes the spirits in darkish shrouds.

Jim Everett, 1987

More of Uncle Jim Everett's poetry

Tell The Truth

The government must tell the truth and acknowledge that our First Nations have never ceded our Law in Country.

We are calling on the government to:

TELL THE TRUTH!

(photo Jillian Mundy)

Read 'First Nations Law in Country’

We Are Country, Country Is Us

Jim Everett puralia meenamatta

Why we care

This is not just an Aboriginal issue, this is everybody’s issue. We’ve got to protect these forests, we’re going to protect our waters and our seas.

Tell The Truth

Tell the Truth