'WE ARE NOT MUSEUM PIECES': Elders blast Greens crusader Bob Brown (the racism of the left)

An Aboriginal elder in Western Australia's Kimberley region has hand-delivered a stinging letter to Bob Brown, urging the former Greens leader to back off from his protest against a major gas project.

In the letter, Jabirr Jabirr elder Rita Augustine tells Mr Brown that "The only thing we need saving from is people who disrespect our decisions and want to see our people locked up in a wilderness and treated as museum pieces".

She also says, "what saddens me most is your complete disregard for Aboriginal people. I know you care about the whales and the dinosaur footprints, but what about people?"

Mr Brown joined the environmental activist group Sea Shepherd this week as mission leader of a two week trip in the whale calving grounds around James Price Point, site of the proposed $45 billion Browse gas development.

The Browse project was negotiated in conjunction with Woodside, the WA Government and the Kimberley Land council (KLC), which is the native title representative body for Kimberley traditional owners.

As part of the deal, traditional owners in the Kimberley will receive a whopping $1.5 billion in assistance over the next 30 years. The money will go towards housing, education and health programs and will go directly to the people rather than being funnelled through the KLC.

Traditional owners told news.com.au that they accept the Browse project will be "a minor environmental hit", but they believe it was wiser to negotiate one massive development rather than as many as 20 smaller projects up and down the coast.

Jabir Jabirr Traditional Owner Rita Augustine in Broome

The Letter

Dear Dr Bob Brown,

I am writing to you because I have heard that you are coming to the Kimberley on a mission to our country and our culture from gas developments at James Price Point.

It is great that you care so much about our country and our culture. We are proud of our history of caring for this country over thousands of years. The country tells us who We are. It gives us strength and determination. But now we face great challenges; not only about our country and our culture, but about our survival as Indigenous people.

Our people have had to make a choice about allowing development on our lands. It hasn't been easy, but we have made a decision - a majority decision -to face up to our own challenges, and to build a better future for our children, our people, our culture, and our country.

Dr Brown, it is hard for us to understand why you think it is necessary for you to speak on our behalf, about our country, our culture, and our futures.

The only thing We need saving from, is people who disrespect our decisions and want to see our people locked up in a wilderness and treated as museum pieces.

We are a living people and a living culture. We have faced severe change over the last 200 years, and most of it has been far beyond our control. Now We have a chance to make decisions about our own lives and our children’s futures.

There are people, like you Dr Brown, who disagree with our vision for our future. And that's a good thing in our democratic society. But please, don't use us to push your view. We can speak for ourselves.

I am a supporter of the gas precinct. This was not an easy decision for my people to make and it was not done lightly. But our people need a future that isn't reliant on Government Welfare. The Browse LNG Project presents that opportunity. I want my children and grandchildren to benefit because if our people don't survive; then the real, living culture dies.

The gas development decision was not made by the Kimberley Land Council. It was made by Kimberley traditional owners after years of consultations and meetings with senior lore bosses and elders. Some of our own group disagree with that decision, and we acknowledge that. The majority ofour group voted to support the development, and instructed the KLC to negotiate an agreement that would give us the power to control our own lives.

And by the way, the money doesn't go to the KLC. It goes to the benefit of Kimberley Aboriginal people.

I am an old woman now and I have witnessed and lived the despair and hopelessness of many Kimberley Aboriginal people. Dr Brown, do you know what it is like to be taken away from your family, to not have money to buy food, to live in a house that is dilapidated and beyond repair? To see your children grow up in despair, die before they are 50, or even worse, take their own lives before they get to their 20s?

My people have lived this life, and we don't want it anymore.

You recently wrote an opinion piece about your mission to the Kimberley. You are a respected and honourable man in Australian society, but you got a few things wrong about this gas project, and about Aboriginal people and our culture and country. It is not your place to tell Aboriginal stories of culture to the world, for they are our stories about our traditions and our culture.

But what saddens my people most is your complete disregard for Aboriginal people. I know you care about the whales and the dinosaur footprints, but what about people?

The Indigenous suicide rate in the Kimberley is one of the highest in Australia. There have been 25 suicide deaths in the past year. Dr Brown, is this not an epidemic and national emergency?

You are the mission leader bringing the Sea Shepard to the Kimberley to highlight the plight of the whales. We have had missionaries coming to the Kimberley before. What about our dying children?

Is this not a cause you should be protesting against?

If we can use the $1.5 billion in benefits that have been negotiated as part of the Browse LNG Precinct Agreement to save our people's lives, will that not be a good thing? We are not money hungry people. This money is not going into our back pocket. It will be used to implement suicide awareness programs, training and counselling for families, education and employment opportunities, better health and housing. ls that too much to ask for?

You'll probably say these things are natural rights for all Australians, and that governments should be providing them regardless of gas projects. Yes they should. But look at the last 200 years and tell me if that has worked. If we wait another 50 years, there is a real risk that Aboriginal people, and the culture that we, and you, value so highly, will be gone.

Dr Brown, we are not enemies. We share many values. We love our land and sea country. We respect strong culture. We want the World to be a better place, not for us, but for our young people and their children.

Kimberley Aboriginal people have helped contain large scale gas development to a single site. We continue to push for the best environmental and social impact safeguards, and community benefits.

You could easily back us up in these efforts.

We don't live in a perfect World, but we do have an opportunity to make it better.

I know that saving the Kimberley is important to you, and maybe my humble words won't change your opinion. But please, while you are in our country watching the whales, spare a thought for our people and what we are trying to achieve.

Yours faithfully

Rita Augustine

On behalf of the Environmental and Cultural Heritage Team and Jabirrlabirr Traditional Owners.

Until a few months ago, Bob Brown was a Senator and the leader of the Australian Greens - which like most Green parties around the world is a hard left party. Now, he's retired from those positions, but he remains an activist for his party.

His attitudes in this case show the all too common patronising racism of the left. He presumes to tell Aboriginal people that he knows better than them what they need, and how they should live. He wants to preserve their culture, even when they want to change.

The Jabir Jabbir are in the fortunate position of controlling land with valuable resources under it - and they want to exploit the wealth those resources can give them to improve their way of life. The key phrase in Rita Augustine's letter, in my view is:

But our people need a future that isn't reliant on Government Welfare.

Welfare, where it exists, should be there to help people who, for good and decent reasons, can't help themselves. The Jabir Jabbir are lucky enough to have an alternative. They maintain control of land that turns out to be valuable. We're constantly being told by the left that we stole Aboriginal land - well, whatever the truth of that, we didn't get this piece and if continued ownership of the land means anything, it means these people should have the right to exploit that ownership to their advantage.

For Australia's indigenous people to move forward - for the disadvantages they have suffered to disappear into the past, the left needs to get out of their way. What was done in the past, right or wrong, is in the past. We can't change it. We can change the present and the future - and help them to do the same.

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