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The Sustainable Hour no. 555 | Transcript | Podcast notes
Learn to listen: From songlines to solutions
The Sustainable Hour’s NAIDOC* Week 2025 Special
In this powerful NAIDOC Week edition of The Sustainable Hour, we are honoured to share the voice of Yaraan Couzens Bundle, a Gunditjmara Djab Wurrung Yuin Bidjara mother of four, whale dreaming custodian, founder of SOPEC – Southern Ocean Protection Embassy Collective, and cultural coordinator for Saltwater People Org, a national collective of grassroots First Peoples Saltwater Nations for Songlines and cultural heritage protection.
Speaking from Gariwerd – the Grampians – Yaraan offers profound insights into what true environmental stewardship looks like when guided by thousands of years of cultural knowledge and spiritual connection to Country.
We explore the significance of Treaty, the aftermath of the failed Voice referendum, and the deep wisdom that First Peoples hold about fire, water, stars, and songlines. We hear Yaraan’s reflections on slowing down, listening to Country, walking the path of true reconciliation, Victoria’s current Treaty process and its potential for climate healing.
Yaraan calls on the federal government to resource marine protection and whale rescue services along the Southern Ocean, highlighting urgent threats from gas exploration and pollution on Gunditjmara Sea Country. This NAIDOC Week, SOPEC shares a demand to the federal government for restorative justice via government resources to set up Southern Coast Marine Mammals and Marine Rescue Units, rescue boats equipped for whale entanglement, ghost nets and plastic retrieval with a special research and record station, and marine veterinary services on boat and headquarters on land with full involvement from the First Peoples’ community.
This week’s episode is both a wake-up call and a message of hope – inviting all of us to stop, breathe, and take time to listen. Because, as Yaraan says: “Country can speak to anyone – if they know how to listen.”
→ Yaraan’s Instagram profile
→ If you would like to help protect Gunditjmara Sea Country, go to Friends of the Earth’s Drill Watch website and sign the Citizens Protection Declaration.
* NAIDOC stands for National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee. Originally, it began as a day of protest and mourning in 1938, marking the mistreatment and displacement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Over time, it evolved into a week-long celebration held every July, now known as NAIDOC Week, to honour the history, culture, and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across Australia. Despite the name, NAIDOC is no longer a functioning committee, but the acronym remains as the title for the celebrations.
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The episode also includes:
– A global climate news roundup by Colin Mockett, covering Tuvalu’s climate migration lottery, New York’s urban battery rollout, and Sydney’s gas ban.
– We premiere the new song ‘Learn to Listen’, inspired directly by Yaraan’s words. With lyrics echoing First Nations wisdom, it is a powerful poetic invitation to slow down, honour Country, and embrace the truth-telling and healing that treaty and cultural respect require.
– A poetic invitation to slow down, honour Country, and embrace the truth-telling and healing that Treaty and cultural respect require. Inspired by Yaraan Bundle in The Sustainable Hour no. 555
Listen now, while you read, and join us in amplifying the stories and solutions that First Nations communities are bringing to the climate crisis.
→ You can listen to more songs from The Sustainable Hour here
. . .
We round off our 555th episode with the song ‘Return Again’, a reflective and meditative piece written for Earth Day based on a speech by Margie Abbott. This gentle song celebrates our interconnection with the natural world, encouraging reconnection with the Earth’s rhythms through stillness, gratitude and care.
The episode closes with an excerpt from the new one-hour documentary film ‘System Update – Rebooting Our Future’. You can see the film on Youtube and read more on www.climate.film.
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Tony’s closing remarks:
There’s no better way to leave you for this year’s NAIDOC Week’s episode than highlighting this year’s theme of the Week, which is: “The Next Generation: STRENGTH, VISION & LEGACY”.
Our special guest, Gunditjmara Sea Custodian Yaraan Bundle, displayed all three of these attributes and then some. She is the epitome of the ancient wisdom we so often refer to in The Sustainable Hour. A wisdom that has arisen from tens of thousands of years of living with a focus on nurturing both Country and Community.
This year’s very impressive NAIDOC poster entitled ‘Ancestral Lines’ and designed by Jeremy Morgan Worrall will take us out this week. On it he explains:
“This artwork is a visual representation of the generational lines that carry through my mob. When I think of the next generation, I think towards my ancestors – Lucy Wright, Enoch Wright, Nonie Wright – through to my Nanna Audrie and my mother Vanessa. Looking back gives me the strength and vision to look forward. Each figure in the painting is tied to family lines, like songlines, reflecting what they knew and what they passed on. The first represents lore, hunting and tracking. The second reflects care, weaving and love. The third shows the two combined, while the final two carry unfinished elements – symbols of knowledge and care in motion. Above them sits the essence of Country – swirling skies and a giant moon over Emmavile. It is by the fire, under these cool skies, where the next generation finds their strength, vision and legacy.”
Be open to this wisdom – allies needed.
“I think, overall, it’s a bigger picture, and there’s all those different elements. I just think that cultural heritage protection and protection of country is like our country is our identity. It’s part of who we are. And, it should be at the root of all other decisions made around First Peoples and for treaty. And, yeah, I just don’t think the federal government is fully ready for the truth yet. But I think our people are sick of… We’ve been yarning for years. The truth, we’re bringing the truth whether people are ready or not now.”
~ Yaraan Couzens Bundle, Gunditjmara Whale Dreaming custodian and founder of SOPEC
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We at The Sustainable Hour would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we are broadcasting, the Wadawurrung People. We pay our respects to their elders – past, present, and emerging, and extend that respect to all First Nations people.
The traditional custodians lived in harmony with the land for millennia, nurturing it and thriving in often harsh conditions. Their connection to the land was deeply spiritual and sustainable. This land was invaded and stolen from them. It was never ceded. Today, it is increasingly clear that if we are to survive the climate emergency we face, we must learn from their land management practices and cultural wisdom.
True climate justice cannot be achieved until Australia’s First Nations people receive the justice they deserve. When we speak about the future, we must include respect for those yet to be born, the generations to come. As the old saying reminds us: “We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.” It is deeply unfair that decisions to ignore the climate emergency are being made by those who won’t live to face the worst impacts, leaving future generations to bear the burden of their inaction.
“The Indigenous worldview has been marginalised for generations because it was seen as antiquated and unscientific and its ethics of respect for Mother Earth were in conflict with the industrial worldview. But now, in this time of climate change and massive loss of biodiversity, we understand that the Indigenous worldview is neither unscientific nor antiquated, but is, in fact, a source of wisdom that we urgently need.”
~ Robin Wall Kimmerer, weallcanada.org
Key insights from Yaraan Couzens Bundle
From the NAIDOC Week 2025 Special edition of The Sustainable Hour
Country is a living being, not a resource.
Yaraan explains that for First Nations people, the land, sea, sky, fire, and water are not just elements or ecosystems – they are living, sentient parts of a reciprocal relationship.
“Country is our mother,” she says. “She nurtures us and we reciprocate that love.”
This understanding of a deeply interconnected, spiritual relationship with nature offers a radically different lens from the Western exploitative mindset – one that treats natural systems as separate, dead, and available for extraction.
“Our world, we’re one. When we’re speaking about the land, sky and sea… there’s a lot of different methods of how we understood that – it’s astrology, it’s alchemy, it’s medicine.”
In a time of ecological breakdown, this worldview reminds us that healing begins not with new technologies, but with transformed relationships – with reverence, responsibility, and kinship with the Earth.
Cultural obligations as climate solutions.
Yaraan and her community practise “speaking to country,” “dancing up country,” and performing ceremonies that align with the seasons and songlines. She shares a powerful moment: after performing the Black Cockatoo dance and a winter solstice whale ceremony, it rained for three days across Jaburung and Gunditjmara Country. For her, this is not coincidence but confirmation – a testament to the effectiveness of cultural and spiritual obligations carried out with sincerity.
“We believe in that because we know it works… And that’s just one of the solutions that First Nations people have about caring for country and seeing country.”
Such stories challenge the assumption that traditional knowledge is outdated. On the contrary, these practices offer time-tested, place-based strategies for restoring climate balance and local resilience.
Slow down to hear what Country is saying.
The wisdom Yaraan offers is not only ecological – it’s also about tempo and presence. The modern world is “too fast,” she says, and learning Indigenous ways requires a slower pace – “the pace of your heartbeat.” This is how one becomes attuned to Country, able to hear its signals, understand its pain, and respond with care.
“The time it takes to learn the lesson is the time it takes to weave that basket… Country can speak to anyone – it’s just if they know how to listen.”
This emphasis on slowness, patience, and deep listening counters the speed and disconnection of modern life – and could help humanity recover not just sustainability, but sanity.
Yaraan’s voice is a call for justice – and a call for reconnection. Embedded in her words is a model for an ecological civilisation rooted in love, reciprocity, and respect. If we are to survive the meta-crisis – climate, biodiversity, social breakdown – we must learn not just to act, but to listen. As she puts it:
“We bring our culture with us into the future.”
Australians, let us walk beside that culture.
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→ SBS – 1 July 2025:
Why over a third of this nation’s citizens want to migrate to Australia
“Scientists have feared the tiny Pacific Island nation of Tuvalu may become uninhabitable within 80 years due to climate change. For some, the impacts are already being felt.”
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www.climate.film
Watch. Share. Do.
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As always the inimitable Julian'To Hell With Drowning' Aguon brings to life the harms to these rights & dignities across Yakel (Vanuatu), Kikori River Delta (Papua New Guinea), Vunidogoloa (Fiji), Lilisiana (Solomon Islands) & eloquently explains the remedies of binding obligations & accountability
— Yung En Chee (@yungenchee.bsky.social) July 2, 2025 at 11:12 AM
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Transcript of The Sustainable Hour no. 555
António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General:
We are flirting with climate disaster.
Jingle:
The Sustainable Hour. For a green, clean, sustainable Geelong: The Sustainable Hour.
Tony Gleeson:
Welcome to The Sustainable Hour. We’d like to acknowledge that we’re on the land of the Wadawurrung people in this very special week for First Nations Australians. It’s NAIDOC week. We’d like to acknowledge that we’re broadcasting from stolen land, land that was never ceded, always was and always will be First Nations land.
This week gives us the opportunity to drill down further into what it means. The ancient wisdom that we refer to week after week, just what that involves for all of us. In the resultant ancient wisdom that they’ve gleaned from nurturing both their land and their communities comes so much of the answers, the solutions that we need as we face up to the climate crisis. It is now more important than ever that non-indigenous Australians become allies because there’s so much for us to learn in that. Their whole being centered around being part of the earth. The earth was a living entity, an entity that they had a responsibility to nurture and to do no harm. They were completely in tune with nature. And that’s the essence that we head into the treaty making in Victoria, in this state anyway.
‘Healing begins when harm is named. They know that water will guide and fire will teach us. The stars will sing when we take the time to listen.’
We’re playing a song later today and I’m very much using the lyrics from that, which Mik created with a bit of assistance from technology. Words drawing directly from that.
‘Songlines have been drowned in pipelines. Kinship traded for control. But in a world that forgets, we remember. And that’s our responsibility. We carry the culture with us. And we are still here, walking, still here protecting, protecting what protects us. So our future will be strong and safe. Learning takes time.’
And that’s what we need to do so badly. We need to learn to listen and take the time to do that. So let’s reflect on all of that during this, the 2025 NAIDOC week.
Mik Aidt: (at 03:30)
Australians, who are we? Well, we are about 26 million of us and roughly 3 per cent identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders. But over half of us have at least one parent who was born overseas. And nearly one in three Australians were actually born overseas themselves, as myself coming from Denmark and then choosing to make Australia my home.
And last year we had this big national conversation, you could say, about whether or not the First Nations people should have a special ‘Voice’ in Parliament… Where people then asked: ‘Why should a little minority group of 3 per cent get a special voice when all of the rest of us don’t? We all get to vote.’
And as we know, with slogans like, ‘If you don’t know, vote no!’, the answer to the Voice across this immigrant country was: ‘no’.
Today we’ll talk in The Sustainable Hour about why that was really a missed opportunity, especially when you come from a nature or environment or climate perspective. Because that First Nations voice could have brought some of that deeply valuable wisdom that Tony is talking about into our Parliament. But before that, let’s get our regular look at what’s happening around the world, Colin Mockett OAM, what you have in your Global Outlook for us this week?
COLIN MOCKETT’S GLOBAL OUTLOOK:
Yes Mik, well, my roundup begins in the South Pacific island nation of Tuvalu where more than a third of citizens have entered a ballot for a world-first climate visa which would allow them to permanently migrate to Australia before climate change swamps them. The first intake of the ballot went on sale last week. And it demonstrated that Australia’s resettlement programme is very much oversubscribed, because only 280 visas will be issued to Tuvalu citizens this year – hence the government-organised random ballot.
The visa programme was introduced by Australia’s foreign affairs department as a landmark response to the threat of climate-related displacement in the South Pacific. There were 1,124 applications submitted to the Tuvalu ballot as of June 27, which accounts for 4,052 Tuvalu citizens with the inclusion of family members.
The island nation is home to 10,643 people, according to their 2022 census.
At just five metres above sea level, Tuvalu is among the most climate-threatened nations in the world.
The winners of the ballot, which costs $25 to enter, will be granted what is called the Pacific Engagement visa which grants indefinite permanent residency in Australia, with the ability to freely travel in and out of the country.
Average wages in Tuvalu are $430 a week.
The visa will also provide for Australian support on arrival in this country, such as the ability to study at schools and universities at the same rate as Australian citizens.
Entry to the ballot will close July 18. Just to recap those numbers, 1,124 applicants representing 4,052 people are applying for just 280 visas.
That’s one of Australia’s responses to the climate crisis.
The new class of visa was created as part of the Australia-Tuvalu Falepili Union, announced in 2024, which includes a commitment to defend the island in the face of natural disasters, public health emergencies and military aggression.
“For the first time there is a country that has committed legally to recognise the future statehood and sovereignty of Tuvalu despite the detrimental impact of climate changed-induced sea level rise,” Prime Minister Feleti Teo said in a statement last year. That was after NASA scientists had predicted that the majority of Tuvalu’s land mass would be below the level of the current high tide by 2050.
Now to New York, where scientists appear to have solved the difficult problem of providing battery storage to the city that never sleeps. The difficulty isn’t that the lights of Times Square are on all the time, it’s really because the majority of people live in apartments and don’t have the opportunity that Australians have to put panels on the roof and a battery to capture spare energy.
The development of renewable energy projects is central to the state’s climate goals of reducing emissions from fossil fuels. Solar and wind power are planned to develop in tandem with battery storage so excess energy can be saved while nature provides wind or sun. Battery storage will help ease any shortfall.
Since 2019, 6,193 battery storage projects have been installed in New York state, but the new project has been providing smaller, more efficient neighbourhood-sized battery systems.
For example, it is developing two battery storage systems to power neighbourhoods in Staten Island. Each battery system can provide a capacity of 4.9 megawatts, a fraction of what a large-scale project has to offer but with several advantages for dense city environs. The unit takes up far less space than a conventional system. On a hot summer day, the two systems in Staten Island can supply power to an estimated 9,800 city households for four hours, the equivalent of 9.8 megawatts. The plan is to provide a network of small battery systems, all located within New York City itself and also connected to a local utility. Customers would sign for the battery storage along with the power they use.
Now to another big city, Sydney, whose council unanimously voted to ban gas appliances in all new homes within months, joining a growing list of councils moving towards all-electric buildings. Under proposed new planning rules, developers will be required to install electric cooktops, ovens and indoor heating and cooling systems in all new homes.
This takes the phase-out of gas a step further than Victoria, where the State Government last week brought in a law stating that householders will be required to replace end-of-life gas hot water systems with heat pumps or other efficient alternatives from May 2027. This was part of a range of new electrification regulations unveiled by the government last week. The rule changes also required all new homes and most commercial buildings to be built all-electric by January 2027, in a move the Allan Labor government says will cut home energy bills by $880 a year, or $1,820 if they have solar. The new home electrification rules were part of what was called State government’s Gas Substitution Roadmap, part of a Gas Security Statement, which set measures to avoid potential gas supply shortfalls as coal exits the grid.
Finally, news of the Conference of the Parties, the annual COP meetings of world leaders. As we previously reported, Australia has bid to host next year’s COP in Adelaide. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: “I can’t think of anywhere better than Adelaide to host that event.” Without any irony at all.
A decision on the hosting was expected this week but it has been delayed. The world’s major climate conference sees no need for urgency, which we know from past COPs. Anyway, an Australian government press release last week said, “COP31 in Adelaide would amplify the voices, perspectives and solutions of the enduring custodians of our lands and oceans – Australia’s First Nations people and Pacific communities – for the benefit of the region and the world.”
Australia’s pitch has always stressed the vulnerability of Pacific nations. Their drowning is the argument for our hosting. As the department said last week, “The impacts of climate change are already affecting our region. That is why we’re committed to hosting a COP in genuine partnership with the Pacific.”
I wonder what the people of Tuvalu holding their $25 raffle tickets think of that. But it does end our round-up for the week.
Jingle (at 15:37)
Listen to our Sustainable Hour – for the future.
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Tony:
Our guest for our NAIDOC special episode for 2025 is Yaraan Couzins Bundle. She’s a Gunditjmara Jabwurrung Uin Binjara mother of four. She’s a whale-dreaming custodian, founder of SOPEC, the Southern Ocean Protection Embassy Collective. She’s a cultural coordinator for saltwater people, or organisation, a national collective of grassroots First People, saltwater nations for song lines and cultural heritage protection. So yeah, and you keep yourself very, very busy. There lots to talk about.
Yaraan:
Yeah. Thank you very much for the opportunity to get our voices out there and our stories heard.
Yeah, we’re talking to you today from the Grampians, the Halls Cap. There’s been a gathering there of First Nations people.
Yeah, yeah, so up here in Garry Ward, we call it, everyone sort of knows it as the Grampians. That’s one of its special names and its traditional names, Garry Ward. And they had the Treaty Assembly chamber meeting up here, or the full chamber. And yeah, that was a tour of country. So they went out to Bundjul’s Cave and a few other places out on country to some cultural heritage trees. yeah, I think that was a big thing for the treaty to come out on country and to make that time to be on country. So there’s some good things happening in that space. I just finished the Walk for Justice. And yeah, I think Victoria’s really gearing up now. We’re in that that space, a lot of mobs are treaty ready.
Tony:
Has that given a renewed spirit, I guess, to First Nations people?
Yaraan:
Yeah, definitely. I think it’s given us that renewed hope or that old, keep the fires burning energy that we’ve got something really positive to work towards still. And the failed voice referendum really spoke to how racist this country is and how much we’ve really got to deal with that within government policies as well.
Treaty, yeah, you know, locally, there’s talk about local treaties within each mob to make the treaty whole and more of a base of coming from all aspects of our mobs whether that’s a cultural lens and working in health and welfare and education and yeah, it’s sort of across the board that I think, yeah, treaties where we’re all looking to now. A lot of mob had faith in that and knew, well, a lot of us grassroots mob anyway knew that what the voice was really about. And it just gave platforms to target our mobs in a really negative way to a lot of racists. And we’ve seen that with Jacinta Price and and the Liberal government through the elections. yeah, so treaties just, think that hope that’s always been sitting there, like our sacred fires, just got to keep them burning. Yeah.
Tony:
And the treaty, what will this mean for your people?
Yaraan:
Well, for my mobs, I think we’ve got some really good reps and we’ve got really strong mob in a lot of the main issues that affect our people. And a lot of mob are still living in poverty and it’s 2025. So I think it’s about raising the living standards.
And I think our mob are pretty equipped to do that. Whereas other mobs are still gathering, that’s information and mob to represent those causes. But I think, yeah, there’s just a lot of positive movement underneath, the negative things that we hear going on. New gas and mine approvals and different things.
We have a lot of hope about what our people can do if given the chance and listen to and, and Treaty is a really good platform for really wide Australia and the rest of Australia to meet us halfway. We talk about, there’s so many talks about reconciliation and that’s a huge thing. We’re the last country to Treaty. So, yeah.
And giving NAIDOC week, giving that a platform to discuss all of these issues in the broader public arena is really good. And the likes of me and some other family do try and get more of our messages amplified during this week where we’re more likely to gain a bit more public support.
Tony:
So yeah, we’re halfway through the week. What can we look forward to for the rest of NADOC week as regards to Gundiamaru mob?
Yaraan:
Well, official events, I think, the community, we always have community events, with the elders and the young people and the different local orgs have all got different events going on. But yeah, for me personally, NAIDOC week is about, sharing stories and sharing, you know, those yarns and those really, really important yarns about protecting country. so up here on Jaburung Country, where we’re living at the moment, I’ll be doing a mural at the local school and, yeah, engaging some of the local school kids in some of the local custodian stories here and the different landmarks that relate to the local area, and bringing people into the story. There’s a place of belonging in the story of what the future of Australia could be, honouring our place as First Peoples. And what that means in NAIDOC Week is really important. We’re going out, actioning what we’re talking about as well.
So we’re going into community sharing stories. We’re also going out on country and we’re also visiting these story sites and paying deep respect to our ancestors and those stories that we’re connected to. And also for me and my family, are the water defenders. Part of our creation business and law that some of the women and me and my children carry is about water, and protecting the fresh water as much as the salt water and all the different song lines and stories that connect to these ancient bodies of water. And we go out on country visiting these natural springs and we spend a lot of time speaking to country and speaking to the water. And last week we done the Black Cockatoo dance out on country after our winter solstice whale ceremony down on Gunditjmara country and we sung the rains and it was amazing with all the elders present, all the matriarchal elders and all the old fellows there and all the young people were up dancing and then it rained across Japurung and Gunditjmara country for three days. And so those stories are the stories that I want people to know about. And I want to share these stories that we’re out on country and we’re singing up our country, we’re dancing up our country. that’s our culture. And if we follow our cultural obligations to care for country, it’s really going to balance out a lot of the negative effects of what we’re dealing with today. And it stems from… right from the land rights fight, right back to the Stalin generation and all the different effects that have happened to my people throughout colonisation. Those effects are still current now and it’s all stemmed from loss of land, loss of culture and loss of identity through loss of country.
Those are the important yarns, I think, to get out there and NADOC week and let people know that mob are out there practicing culture and a healing country. And we believe in that because we know that it works. We sing that natural spring and then the water flow down to the ground. And that’s really part of what we do.
And that’s just one of the solutions that First Nations people have about caring for country and see country.
Mik:
We hear, every week we begin The Sustainable Hour with an acknowledgement of country. It’s usually Tony who does it. And he always ends with saying there’s so much wisdom from the First Peoples that has been acquired over thousands and thousands of years of living not just on country, but really in togetherness with the environment in so many different ways. Can you sort of explain to us the depth of that connection – and how you could say the knowledge, wisdom that we’re talking about here could help in the climate crisis?
Yaraan:
Definitely. I think that’s one of the most important yarns to date. We need to be in really demand of government and industry right now about First Nations wisdom of the land, sky and sea and how we move forward in climate crisis. First Nations people all around the world have had solutions for years. It’s just that we’re not being listened to. But when it comes to the First Nations oldest living culture in the world, there’s so much complex, really genius knowledge about how the natural world works. And, and we have language names for that.
We have special ways that we connect into that natural world is a lot through our mother tongues and the vibrations of what’s inside of us and what’s on country. And so it’s really about being at one with the natural world and that’s our mother. She nurtures us and we reciprocate that love, and so love is about understanding the different ecosystems and the living elementals of country, which is your fire, your water, your air, all of the things that the Western world doesn’t fully recognise as living and therefore they become separate, whereas our world, we’re one. And so, when we’re speaking about the land, sky and sea, and we’re connecting up the different ways of how we speak to those different elements of country, all those different parts of country. There’s a lot of different methods of how we understood that.
It’s astrology, you know, really first scientists and different what people would call alchemy, medicines of the land and basically our food was our medicine. So we lived in tune and there was a real time reciprocal relationship and those kinships, know, the reason why many mobs are connected to different animals, different totem animals and spirit animals, and plants and elementals is because each person that is connected to a different part of that has a responsibility to care for that. And then it literally becomes like a tree of life all connected. There’s the roots and the trunk and the bark and the leaves and all the different parts that make up the whole. And so, yeah, part of what we’re really wanting to share is… Yeah, those fire knowledges and those water knowledges and those star knowledges and be able to help, really care for the future of everyone and the planet really.
But also in full acknowledgement of my old people and all of the ancestral people and beings of this country and that cultural knowledge and the way that that cultural knowledge is shared. The way that we share is, you you earn that knowledge, you earn that respect to go to the next level of learning, you know. And yeah, throughout history, we’ve seen, First Nations voices and knowledges be put to the side a lot of the time or even some of those knowledges taken and remade in a different version, culturally appropriated and used without permission. So that’s something just really important to acknowledge that these knowledges come with law.
You know, the understanding of that lore is really important. We can talk to scientists and archaeologists all day, but whether or not they understand that, to have the right connection to that knowledge, we’re not going to, the government’s not going to use it to advance mining or something like that. We have to keep those knowledges safe.
But also the main factor of that, think, growing up, dedicating my life to learning about our business and making sure that, our culture is not lost on our watch, that it’s passed and handed down and continues, and comes with us. We bring our culture with us into the future. So, yeah, the main aspect of sharing those cultures is knowledge is that we could talk to archaeologists and scientists and all different marine biologists and everything, whether they have the right spirit way for that knowledge to sit in their body and spirit for them to take that knowledge on and retain it and understand it and not have that knowledge be whitewashed in any way.
And that’s a really important part about sharing those knowledges to acknowledge that there’s a way of living and being and sharing, you know?
Tony:
Yeah. Would I be right in saying that white fellows generally to get this, we’re going to have to learn to slow down, breathe in the country, walk in the country.
Yaraan:
Yeah, definitely. Yeah, you’re on the right track, Tony. That’s really important to this world. This modern world is very fast. we’ve got this fast internet and fast transport and everything. And sometimes, yeah, the time that it takes to learn the lesson is the time that it takes to weave that basket. Long time if you’re a slow weaver.
And yeah, to take that knowledge in and slow down to the pace of your heartbeat without the anxiety of what’s happening to the country and war around the world and different things that we have to deal with in society. That’s something that we always come back to is slowing down to your tumtumpa, your heartbeat and your war country the same way.
And if you just move a little bit slower, it might open up all of those senses that we have and country will begin to, you’ll see the signs and country can speak to anyone. And it’s just, yeah, if they know how to listen. We want to amplify the stories and the solutions in a climate crisis. We’re talking about like seaweed farming and revegetation to endemic species, wedge-tailed eagle and dingo protection and reestablishment, restoring the ecosystems to what they were. And yeah, it’s a huge job.
There’s a lot of invasive species across country that are making it very hard in that caring for country story, and mining industry is, huge is the biggest threat that we have. And we’re all on borrowed time, fighting the mining industry. Yeah. They, it just seems, that’s why treaty is very hopeful for a lot of our mob on the ground that are out there defending, birthing trees and, and sacred songlines. you know.
River sites where ancient burials have been there for a long time and all these different things are being disturbed in the country now. And so I think it’s really important to speak about what’s happening now. You know, while everyone’s off celebrating NAIDOC week, which is a really positive thing for our young people. And I really support that, bringing culture to the forefront a little bit more.
But while this is happening, the destruction is happening as well. Yeah, out on our sea country and Gunditjmara sea country as we speak, it’s happening. You know, the seismic or the gas exploration and extraction and it’s in the middle of Kuntabool season. It’s something that, we… It was very close to our heart in defending because it’s connected to our children and connected to their identity and their place of belonging on country, just as much as us older whale-dreaming custodians. It’s something that we’ve been part of – a really great campaign to save the Southern Ocean. But there’s elements of that that we’re unable to block, you know.
I was saying to my sister girl the other week that I wish I had, a boat like Steve Irwin and some of the, Paul Watson crew and we’d be out there defending, occupying our sea country and defending it, but we’re just not resourced to do that and that was one of the things that I wanted to speak about actually. So, I would like to make a public demand to the federal government this NAIDOC week. Put your energy and your resources where your mouth is and we want to see the federal government support a marine rescue unit and a whale entanglement vessel along the southern coast of Australia in each state would be great but especially along the migratory routes of most large cetaceans in the Southern Ocean. And we would like to demand this NAIDOC week that the federal government resource that.
They’ve just cut all this funding to the fisheries in Victoria and they’ve just approved a major gas port in Corio Bay and they’re… yeah, in the middle of gaining royalties to all of the new gas approvals across the Gondichmarra Sea Country. And we see this as completely unacceptable. We’ve got seismic vessels out there and rigs out there now. They’re blocking the songlines, they’re blocking the pathways of these beautiful Kuntabal, our ocean ancestors, our ocean family.
We’re also worried about the giant wind turbines, but we don’t see any marine, animal veterinary services for injured marine life. It was all through fisheries as far as I’m aware.
Minister Murray Watt, do your job and look after the environment and look after the coast and the sea country. And, you know, you can’t just take from that sea country anymore.
We need resources. We need those vessels along the coastline for whale entanglements and other ghost nets and plastic retrieval. We just saw wood sides, industrial plastic wash up from them plugging one of their old whales in Gunditjmara Sea Country and the plastic washed up from around Tirandara around Yambuk and Narrawong there, all along the coast to around Port Campbell. And I’m not sure if it got past Apollo Bay, but that’s a fair stretch for industrial plastic, you know, and there’s been no cleanup as far as we know. There’s been no, reparations of damages.
There’s just been these massive corporations and government getting away with trashing country for mass profit and extraction and a lot of that gas goes overseas. We want the federal government and the federal environment minister to look at the major problems that are affecting the Southern Ocean and we don’t have any rescue resources down here or medical resources along this coast to treat them. There’s only a few of us and official professionals that have had to carry the load for many years. So that’s one of our NAIDOC demands.
Tony:
Yeah, and if there are any of our listeners that would like to be able to support those demands, how do we, could we include something in our notes about that?
Yaraan:
Yeah, maybe just to contact, the Federal Environment Minister and yeah, demand they listen to First Nations people in caring for country, but specifically resource the Southern Ocean for marine rescue and marine veterinary resources.
Okay. And I think some of those resources should, you know, vessels big enough to retrieve ghost nets and, you know, teams that are resourced to do plastic retrieval. The amazing beach patrol down in Warrnambool that just, they’re cleaning all of Gunditjmara beaches and, you know, they’re challenging what’s coming out of the ocean from the humans and it’s really good work.
These massive corporations don’t care about damaging any of the natural world, but they also completely dismiss first people’s birthrights and cultural rights. Our birthrights are our cultural rights to practice our culture and they’re hindering our practice. They’re trashing our country and our country, those living elements that I mentioned before that we have to speak to and care for. Yeah.
Tony:
And a treaty is, am I right in saying the treaty aim is to stop all that?
Yaraan:
I think, yeah, there’s people in the space. I definitely would want, full ancestral birthrights, know, land rights, water rights. I think that’s not, there’s not too many people that are speaking about that. But at the same time, there is talk about, some economic benefit to our communities.
But I think, overall, it’s a bigger picture, Jan, and there’s all those different elements. I just think that cultural heritage protection and protection of country is like our country is our identity. It’s part of who we are. And, it should be at the root of all other decisions made around First Peoples and for treaty. And, yeah, I just don’t think the federal government is fully ready for the truth yet. But I think our people are sick of, we’ve been yarning for years. The truth, we’re bringing the truth whether people are ready or not now.
Even next week, I’m going up to Lismore for the National Climate Dialogues Gathering. There’ll be First Nations from all across Australia going to Bundjalung country to pay their respects and yarn about how we move forward in a climate crisis and what us First Peoples in our communities are doing. We’re not waiting for the government to listen to us anymore, we’re just doing it. And hopefully people will start to recognise, and support, that we’re actually fighting for a better future for everyone and everyone’s place of belonging and support us.
. . .
SONG
‘Learn to Listen’ (at 45:27) – mp3
[Verse 1]
I stand on the Earth.
I breathe with the land.
The rhythm of its heartbeat
weaves in with my own.
I give it all the time it needs.
[Chorus – call-response]
(Listen…)
The treaty begins when truth is spoken.
(Listen…)
Healing begins when harm is named.
(Listen…)
Water will guide, fire will teach.
(Listen…)
The stars will sing, when we learn… to listen. (Listen…)
[Instrumental section]
[Bridge]
We sang the rain, and the rain came.
We danced the land, and the land moved.
Our sacred fire never dies.
We are waiting for you to slow down.
To sit with us. And to learn.
[Verse 2]
We are the river.
We are the land.
The eagle watches.
The whale sings.
We don’t own these stories
They flow through us.
Every rock is a page of a living law.
Every tide a verse of an ancient truth.
[Chorus – call-response]
(Listen…)
The treaty begins when truth is spoken.
(Listen…)
Healing begins when harm is named.
(Listen…)
Water will guide, fire will teach
(Listen…)
The stars will sing, when you learn… to listen. (Listen…)
[Outro]
Songlines have been drowned in pipelines.
Kinship traded for control.
But in a world that forgets – we remember.
We carry the culture with us.
And we are still here, walking.
Still here, protecting.
Protecting what protects us.
So our future will be strong and safe.
Learning takes time.
Learn… to listen.
. . .
Interview excerpts, statements by Yaraan:
Country can speak to anyone. It’s just, yeah, if they know how to listen.
This modern world is very fast. Slow down to the pace of your heartbeat. Tomtumpa, your heartbeat.
We’re not waiting for the government.
Our country is our identity, it’s part of who we are and it should be at the root of all other decisions made.
. . .
Mik:
NAIDOC week, a time for reflection, certainly, and responsibility, taking responsibility, something it seems like our political leaders simply cannot face. We know what needs to happen. We have the tools. We have all the solutions. What’s lacking, as we know, is political will to get it done.
And I think also the media plays a big part in this because there’s no clarity. As a matter of fact, there’s a lot of confusion and even lies being spread in media. So that’s why we are in the mess that we are in.
Colin:
That’s right. Yes, and I think we can go back to the very opening of today’s show, which acknowledges NAIDOC Week. And it’s something that Tony acknowledges every single week, that the First Nations people of Australia didn’t damage the land that we have really brought to the brink in something like 250 years.
And we can learn so much from their care of the land over thousands of years, not just a couple of hundred years that we’ve been in control, thousands of years. And nobody, seems to me, nobody is looking at that overall picture and saying, ‘Hey, look! They did this and they did this and they did this’ – and they didn’t build huge, great quarries and sell coal around the world. What they sold was wool, which grew and it’s renewable. Well, even then they didn’t do that initially. That was our thing to do it. They just existed in harmony with the land. And yes, it’s certainly something that I think we do. There’s enough indigenous voices in Parliament now to actually remind cabinets at all levels of just how we’re not listening to the Voice. And of course, we all know that the people turned down an indigenous Voice last year because they thought it was… they were sold the idea that it was discriminating positively towards the First Nation people. In truth, it would have been wonderful to have got their input, the indigenous Australians input into where we go in the future because we’ve certainly got to go somewhere different in the future.
Tony:
Yeah, the really good thing here is, as we learned today from Yaraan, is in Victoria that that’s morphed into a campaign to get the treaty and truth-telling is so much is the start of that. So, yeah, I think that just listening to Yaraan’s impassioned, well, passionate talk to us earlier in the show just shows that, yeah, there are people, there are First Nations people that were deeply offended by it, but they didn’t give up. And like this is the oldest continuing culture on the planet, and they didn’t give up over that. And they’re driving the future, which is getting us much closer to learning their ancient wisdom, taking it on and actually following their practices, which is, yeah, there’s so many of the solutions that as we face up to the climate crisis. We’re just zooming through life without stopping to see and small the roses. I guess that’s the closest I can get to the analogy of appreciating what we’ve got around us, which is very much what First Nations people – that was the essence of their existence: it was what nature was telling them. And we’re too busy to listen to that.
Colin:
Yes, yes. And we’re frequently in a hurry to go nowhere too. We’re driving our great big three-ton four-wheel drives to and from shopping centres to buy Coca-Cola and consume it and get fat. And that’s ‘progress’ in Australia in the 21st century. We need a sort of a rethink, a jerk, a pull up. We need somebody to get hold of us and say, ‘Look, this is wrong, this is stupid!’ Let’s do things more sensibly in the future.
Tony:
Yeah. Well, Yaraan very much did that in this show, I feel. In her words, yeah, it’s a real wake up and: ‘Let’s do this together!’ Let’s share the knowledge that we have.
JINGLE
Mik:
That was all we could fit in a NAIDOC Week Special Sustainable Hour. How do we get out of here? Well, ‘Be…’? Colin?
Colin:
Be mindful, be aware, and be thoughtful of the future. Be like the First Nations people!
Tony:
Yeah, be indigenous.
Colin:
I can’t think I can do that. I can think like one, though. Yeah.
Mik:
Be ready to learn.
Colin:
Be open.
Tony:
Open, yeah.
Colin:
Open to learn.
. . .
SONG
‘Return again’
[Verse 1]
I hear you, Mother Earth,
not in words
but in the silence beneath the trees.
A heartbeat in the soil,
a whisper carried by wind
The soil breathes
The trees remember
Tending the Earth
as she has tended us.
[Bridge]
We came from you,
and to you, we will return.
Every breath we take is a gift
Every drop of rain, is kindness of Planet Earth
[Chorus]
Return again, to the land of fertility
Return again, to what we once knew
It’s how we listen, it’s how we care
[Verse 2]
We are not separate.
We are not above.
We are the air,
the birdsong,
the trembling leaf.
[Bridge]
There is still time
To touch the ground
with bare feet.
To teach again
the language of kindness,
of courage,
of enough.
[Chorus]
Return again, to the land of fertility
Return again, to what we once knew
It’s how we listen, it’s how we care
. . .
Excerpt from the documentary film ‘System Update | Rebooting Our Future’ (at 58:16)
System Update | Rebooting Our Future
System Update | Rebooting Our Future
Speaker: (at 58:31)
Everything everywhere all at once. That’s the change that we need now. An entirely new world is possible. We don’t have to sacrifice communities and ecosystems in the pursuit of never-ending economic growth. Hundreds of millions of people can see the outlines of this new world and they’re taking action for climate justice to make it a reality.
We will win. The end of the age of fossil fuels is inevitable. What you can do is help us win faster. Join the global movement and take action today. Talk to your friends, family and work colleagues about climate change. Tell your elected politicians to take action on the climate and ecological crisis and that these issues are important to you. Find out what your place of work is doing and help empower it to become a positive force for change. Connect with groups, locally or online. Working with others can amplify your power. It can also make long and lasting friendships. We all have a role to play. It’s our future. Let’s work together to make a world that we’re not afraid of, that we would love to call our home.
Go to www.climate.film. Watch. Share. Do.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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