Letter to the Editor: Preserve our sacred country and culture

DEAR News Of The Area,

MOUNT Coramba (within Orara East and Lower Bucca State Forests) is a sacred place for the Garlambirla and the Garby Elders groups and surrounding clans, all connected across our Gumbaynggirr Nation with priceless and irreplaceable creation and increase values embedded within this beautiful ancient, healthy and intact Country.

All of it was promised to us by the Government as part of the Great Koala National Park (GKNP).

All of it is cherished by our community as the healthy forested place that it is.

It must remain intact for the sacred values to remain intact.

Forestry Corporation has just started logging massive old trees in this sacred place that still has endangered Dunggirr (Koala), Greater Gliders and Yellow-bellied Gliders and their habitats, unlike so many forests.

We believe that this logging will make them go extinct here. We do not accept this.

We ask the NSW Government to act immediately to protect our sacred Country in the promised GKNP; the Premier Chris Minns must immediately stop Forestry Corporation from doing any further logging activities on our Sacred Mount Coramba.

We are Gumbaynggirr Elders, Traditional Elders and Custodians from the Gumbaynggirr Nation.

We hold Custodial and Traditional First Nation responsibilities for the GKNP.

The Gumbaynggirr Nation is a place of plenty that was known as a place of sharing, collective sustenance and nourishment in traditional times.

These values continue to exist across the unique landscapes and seascapes of our Nation from the coral reefs of the Solitary Islands through the beaches and dense coastal valley rainforests and a diversity of wetlands and rivers and to our really tall mountains forests.

This is the very essence of our being and is central to our identity.

Many of our people have totemic connections and custodial responsibilities for animals such as the Dunggirr (the Koala) that need the forests of the GKNP to remain standing.

All these forests must be protected and where possible they must be restored and expanded so as to ensure the survival of our totems (and ultimately us all) in a rapidly changing world.

Our Nation has had too much forest taken from it since being taken from us.

This has caused serious harm to our totem animals, flora and fauna, our Dreaming and our culture.

It has caused many animals and plants to become endangered and has caused our rivers to be fouled and for some time to stop flowing in dry times.

The loss of our forests must stop immediately to prevent any further damage and harm to all.

Darrungdung (Thank You),
Aunty Narelle WILSON.