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.
From now to 25 January we are honouring & celebrating our Protectors of Country.
Will you stand with us for 20 days?
On 26 January 2025, mob across this continent will mourn a day that signifies the start of an ongoing and brutal invasion of our nations. While that day is full of sorrow and reflection, we will also be honouring Country and our rights as Law keepers of Country.
For these 20 days, join us to actively honour and celebrate our cultural obligations to protect Country, heal Country and share knowledge and spirit for our future generations.
What’s happening on your Country? Let’s tell each other our success stories to encourage and inspire mob here in Lutruwita, across the continent and around the world.
It’s so easy to get depressed at this time of year but, instead, bring good spirit and get active.
Friends, allies, supporters and co-conspirators, engage with our online content each day (6-25 Jan), learn about and amplify Blak voices on your social media platforms and have conversations with family, friends and colleagues.
Look out for daily updates here on our website and on Instagram and Facebook.
Tag us and use hashtags #tellthetruth #protectorsofcountry
There is Another Way
Statement by Ruth Langford/Tipruthanna
Yorta Yorta and Dja Dja Wurrung, born and lives in Lutruwita, with cultural responsibility to Palawa and their Country.
Ruth Langford, along with Pakana people Carleeta Rose Helen Thomas and Cody Gangell, are protecting Country today in the heart of Eastern Tiers forest, Lutruwita/Tasmania.
We stand on the edge of a clearfell logging coupe. Behind us are ancient intact ecological relationships and in front of us, in stark contrast, greed-driven devastation. We are seeing colonial plunder of natural systems Aboriginal people honour for the well-being of all.
Right now, in the US, Donald Trump is being inaugurated as president. We are less than a week away from a significant annual Day of Mourning for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people throughout so-called Australia.
As our global human society moves towards uncertainty, instability and toxicity, we choose not to be disillusioned or distressed. We choose to activate our cultural obligations and spiritual responsibilities. We choose a way that draws on the ancient wisdom of earth-honouring First Nations cultures.
First Nations laws, practices and wisdom – cultivated over thousands of years – will relieve climate crisis and societal distress so we can live in ‘right relationship’, or in balance, with all that sustains and nourishes us.
Palawa Elder Uncle Jim Everett puralia meenamatta has asked everyone to stand with him. To accept his call to defend and protect Palawa Country.
Despite the ongoing impacts of colonisation, Palawa Law in Country remains strong. The natural life-enhancing systems that formed Palawa Law in Country must be followed to restore the balance disturbed and disrupted by the relentless plunder of extractive industry.
Native forest logging is destroying the relationship ecosystems that sustain All-life. Under Palawa Law we ask the question: Who are the real criminals?
When colonial government agencies, such as Forestry Tasmania, allow the destruction of important water catchments and increase our vulnerability to potential catastrophic fire events then we, the people, must act.
It is clear we cannot rely on the current colonial political systems or institutions to provide any leadership towards a healthy and vibrant way of being.
There is another way. The way home to healthy people is to nurture and sustain healthy forests and restore our waterways. We must protect Palawa Law in Country.
Images Jillian Mundy & Ramji Ambrosiussen
fresh daily content
6-25 January 2025
fresh daily content 6-25 January 2025
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
Law Keeper of Country addresses rights
I have a right to protect Country because our Law is in Country.
On Wed 11 December 2024, Uncle Jim was due to appear at Hobart Magistrates Court in Nipaluna on trespass charges for protecting Country.
Instead he gave a press conference on the court steps and reminded supporters and media of his right to protect Country.
With that, Uncle Jim walked away from the courthouse.
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
Ruth Langford and Uncle Jim Everett protesting in Styx Valley. Photo: Ramji/Bob Brown Foundation
Uncle Jim and forest defenders, Styx Valley. Photo: Ramji/Bob Brown Foundation
Uncle Jim Everett prior to his arrest, Styx Valley. Photo: Ramji/Bob Brown Foundation
Uncle Jim and forest defenders, Styx Valley. Photo: Ramji/Bob Brown Foundation
Bradys Lake logging coupe 22 Oct 2024, Lutruwita/Tasmania. Photo Ramji/Bob Brown Foundation
Bradys Lake coupe, Lutruwita. Photo Ramji/Bob Brown Foundation
Bradys Lake coupe, Lutruwita. Photo Ramji/Bob Brown Foundation
Uncle Jim Everett, Bradys Lake. Photo Jillian Mundy
Jillian Mundy, Uncle Jim Everett, Ruth Langford. Photo Ramji/Bob Brown Foundation
Uncle Jim and forest defenders, Bradys Lake coupe. Photo Jillian Mundy
Uncle Jim celebrates his 82nd birthday, Bradys Lake coupe. Photo Ramji/Bob Brown Foundation
Police officer questions Jim Everett (supported by Ruth Langford), Bradys Lake. Photo Jillian Mundy
Jim Everett and police officer, Bradys Lake. Photo Jillian Mundy
Jim Everett arrested at Bradys Lake. Photo Jillian Mundy
Uncle Jim Everett arrested at Bradys Lake. Photo Jillian Mundy
Jim Everett arrested at Bradys Lake. Photo Jillian Mundy
Ruth Langford, Bradys Lake logging coupe. Photo Ramji/Bob Brown Foundation
Uncle Jim & Bob Brown press conference 22 Oct 2024, Nipaluna/Hobart. Photo Jillian Mundy
Uncle Jim and Bob Brown press conference, Nipaluna/Hobart. Photo Jillian Mundy
Uncle Jimmy, Ruth Langford and forest defenders, Bradys Lake. Photo Jillian Mundy
Ruth Langford, Bradys Lake. Photo Ramji/Bob Brown Foundation
Bob Brown and Uncle Jim Everett, Eastern Tiers Oct 2024. Photo Ramji/BBF
(right to left) Ruth Langford, Uncle Jim Everett, Jenny Weber, Bob Brown, Erik Hayward. Photo Ramji/BBF
Uncle Jimmy and forest defenders protest native forest logging in Styx Valley. Photo Ramji/BBF
Ruth Langford and Uncle Jimmy rotest native forest logging in Styx Valley. Photo Ramji/BBF
Uncle Jimmy moments before arrest while protesting native forest logging in Styx Valley. Photo Ramji/BBF
Uncle Jimmy and forest defenders protest native forest logging in Styx Valley. Photo Ramji/BBF
Crowd gathers outside Hobart Magistrates Court, Nipaluna, before Uncle Jim's press conference. 11 Dec 2024. Photo BBF
Uncle Jim press conference outside Hobart Magistrates Court, Nipaluna. 11 Dec 2024. Photo Bob Brown Foundation
Uncle Jim Everett gives press conference outside Hobart Magistrates Court, NIpaluna, 11 Dec 2024. Photo Jillian Mundy
Uncle Jim supported outside Hobart Magistrates Court, Nipaluna. 11 Dec 2024. Photo Bob Brown Foundation
Tananger Peet and Ruth Langford in Takayna for Bob Brown Foundation's Forest Convergence, 3-8 January 2025. Photo BBF
Tananger Peet, Ruth Langford and forest defenders in Takayna for Forest Convergence, 3-8 January 2025. Photo Bob Brown Foundation
Forest Convergence in Takayna, 3-8 January 2025. Photo Bob Brown Foundation
Forest defender, Tanager Peet, Ruth Langford, Erik Hayward and Scott Jordan in Takayna for Forest Convergence, 3-8 January 2025. Photo BBF
GRANT answers Uncle Jim's call to protect Country on 28/1/25, west Kunanyi range. Photo supplied by GRANT
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)