Sacred Indigenous sites and landmarks are everyone’s to share

Great opinion piece in the Courier Mail today by Mike O'Connor...

An organisation called Right to Climb operates under the banner “Our Mountains Belong To All Of Us.” It’s right but it’s not just our mountains. Our islands also belong to all of us.

Sacred Indigenous sites and landmarks are everyone’s to share

Surely it is of greater benefit to enlighten visitors about sacred Indigenous landmarks rather than pressure governments to lock them up, writes Mike O’Connor. That does not seem to be a welcome to country.

It is named, auspiciously, Mount Warning and is set to become the latest landmark to be declared off-limits to non-Indigenous people.

The extinct volcano, sitting across the NSW border in the Tweed Valley, attracts tens of thousands of people every year who climb its peak to enjoy the sunrise and a view that stretches to the Pacific Ocean.

Freedom of Information documents obtained from the NSW Parks and Wildlife Service show it has drawn up hitherto secret plans to close the walking track to the mountain, named by Captain Cook in 1770, from November next year.

In Queensland, Indigenous elders have made it clear that they would like to see Mount Tibrogargan and Mount Beerwah in the Glasshouse Mountains and nearby Mount Coolum declared off-limits.

There are also calls for St Mary Peak in South Australia’s Flinders Ranges and Mount Yengo in the NSW Hunter Valley to be closed to climbers while large sections of the Grampians National Park in Victoria are also being closed.

On North Stradbroke Island, campers are being banned by the Quandamooka Yoolooburrabee Aboriginal Corporation (QYAC) while the state government is planning to give control of Moreton Island, the world’s second largest sand island, to the same corporation.

The article ends...

An organisation called Right to Climb operates under the banner “Our Mountains Belong To All Of Us.” It’s right but it’s not just our mountains. Our islands also belong to all of us.

We wholeheartedly endorse this statement!

Read the whole article at the Courier Mail - link above.

Courier Mail 9 March 2021

Comments

Mount Warning: Aboriginal claims about summit climb are contested

"How can the public experience the spiritual significance of this land if they do not climb the summit and witness creation." Ngaraakwal Elder Marlene Boyd RIP NSW NPWS have the following description about Aboriginal attitudes to people climbing to the summit of Mt Warning on their webpage about the walking track: Wollumbin, which means ‘cloud catcher’ to some Aboriginal People, is a traditional place of cultural law, initiation and spiritual education for the people of the Bundjalung Nation. Under Bundjalung law, only certain people can climb the summit. Out of respect for their law and culture, consider not climbing the summit. These claims, including the very name applied to the mountain, are contested and it seems there is another story that NSW NPWS have not properly acknowledged and have long kept from public attention. We came across this article from the Daily News February 24 2007 about Ngaraakwal Elder Marlene Boyd that makes for interesting reading. ...

17th death on the Rock

17th death on the Rock ABC report that a 76 year old Japanese man collapsed on the steep part of the climb and despite first aid, was not able to be revived. The elderly Japanese man likely died as a result of heart complications, probably brought on by existing (perhaps unknown) medical conditions and over exerting himself. He appears to have died revelling in the opportunity life provides. RIP Brother of the Rock. Our thoughts with his family and the first attenders who did their best to treat him. It's sad, but life goes on, and so should the climb. His death marks the 17th death ON the Rock since 26 May 1962 when 16 year old school boy Brian Strieff, on a school excursion with Carey Grammar, wondered off the main path in heavy fog on the way down and fell to his death. ABC's report indicate it is the 37th death, but these figures from Parks Australia have not been substantiated. It seems that many of the deaths Parks Australia claim to have occurred ON the Rock occurr...

Mt Warning closure - 4 years of lies and misinformation

Mt Warning closure - 4 years of lies and misinformation March 30 (Easter Saturday) marks the 4-year anniversary of the "temporary" closure of the Mt Warning summit track. Some thoughts and rambled musings below. I spoke with Ben Fordham about the anniversary on the Ben Fordham Breakfast show on 2GB. Ben's response a classic: "If you want to climb, just climb it!" Link to that interview HERE . 4 year anniversary of bureaucratic madness We know the exact date of the closure thanks to bushwalker: Tertia Starr Maynard, who posted a photo of a note left on her windscreen by NPWS rangers to the reopen Facebook page . It was dated and read “NPWS advises Wollumbin National Park is closing from today due to covid19. Gate is not locked but please close behind you as you exit. Thanks NPWS.” Photo by T Maynard - the last walkers out. In the 4 years since, after other parks were reopened, Mt Warning remained closed and the reason for the temporary closure morphed to in...

Right to Climb

Search This Blog