“Hey Santos, no way! We will fight you all the way!” and “Always was, always will be, Aboriginal land!” echoed through the CBD streets as First Nations people, unionists and environmental activists protested Santos’ coal seam gas plans in the Pilliga Forest.
The protest, organised by the Unions NSW Pilliga Campaign Committee, Sydney Knitting Nannas and Friends, Lock the Gate and the Gomeroi people, started outside the Federal Court and marched to New South Wales Parliament.
Santos has, for years, been pushing to drill 850 gas wells across thousands of hectares of the Pilliga Forest on Gamilaraay/Gomeroi Country. If it gets the go ahead, the forest would be carved up with roads, fences and other infrastructure, turning a sacred place and precious natural wonder into a dangerous and dirty coal seam gas field.
The Federal Court, in March last year, found that the Native Title Tribunal should have considered evidence on climate change, sending Gomeroi community members and Santos back into mediation.
Gomeroi Traditional Owners travelled from the Pilliga to deliver a letter to NSW Labor that they do not give permission for the Narrabri Gas Project to proceed. The Native Title Tribunal is expected to make a decision on May 9.
Rally chairperson Ray Bubbly Weatherall introduced the speakers and declared that the Gomeroi people would fight Santos until the gas project is defeated.
Auntie Sue-Ellen Tighe, a founder of Grandmothers Against Removals, told the crowd: “It has been 86,000 days since the Australian colony began its destruction of Aboriginal culture and land. Congratulations for standing up for First Nations peoples and for yourselves. Native title and climate change are both vital issues.
“We are not going away. The next generations are also coming forward to continue this fight for country and for the planet,” Tighe said.
Greens MLC Sue Higginson said the federal election showed that “people won over the politics of racism and division”. But she added “there is a lot more work to do” and “we cannot allow Santos’ destructive plans for the Pilliga to go ahead”.
Vanessa Seagrove, Unions NSW assistant secretary, said her organisation had decided to stand with the Gomeroi people a couple of years ago and it would continue to “support their struggle”.
Michael Thwaites, acting general secretary of the NSW Nurse and Midwives Association, said that union “support the rights of Aboriginal peoples, including the Gomeroi” and that it recognises the “serious health effects of gas mining and its contribution to climate change”.
Jacqui Scruby, Independent MP and Jeremy Buckingham, Legalise Cannabis Party MLC, also spoke in solidarity.