Early on July 20, a convoy of 100 cars and buses drove to the United States Pine Gap spy base and 500 people from across the country gathered outside the gates of the military facility to demand it be handed back to Traditional Owners.
A delegation of the Hayes family, the site’s Traditional Owners, Barb Shaw, Greens Senator David Shoebridge and Nour Salman negotiated their way through police lines to present a letter to a Pine Gap representative stating the Hayes family’s demands: Return Kuyunba (the land where Pine Gap sits); Close Pine Gap; Compensation for the years Kuyunba has been occupied; and compensation to the families in Gaza for lives lost as a result of Pine Gap’s intelligence being passed on to the Israeli state.
Felicity Hayes told the rally: “We want our Apmere [land] back ... My country is a sacred place … for me and my families and for everybody in Australia so today I wanted to tell them that we don’t want Pine Gap to ever exist on our land. Shut it down.”
Shoebridge, who will table the letter in federal parliament, noted that the Australian Federal Police “didn’t know what to do with the culture and the strength and the history of the Hayes Family ... you could see in that moment of exchange, who was going to resist and win this struggle. It’ll be First Nations people; it’ll be Arrernte People.”
Nour Salman, a Palestinian woman, said the reason the protest with First Nations communities is happening is a recognition that the land is theirs and that the “data being transferred directly from this base to the US and … filtered over to Israel [is being used] for genocidal purposes.”
Remah Naji, a Palestinian activist from Magan-djin/Brisbane, told the Hayes family that “until your land is back, we will stand with you”. She said she would be guided by the First Nations people of this country “because I would also like my land back ... and I would also like freedom for the Palestinian people — from the river to the sea.”
Two nurses from the Australian Nurses and Midwives Federation read a statement of support from the Maritime Union of Australia. It said: “As the world moves closer than ever to catastrophic warfare, this convergence is a timely reminder that the fight for peace is everyone's business. Unions have a critical role to play and we stand with you.”
