Living Country
Clip 2: Still green
2 min 46 sec
Taken from the documentary Living Country (2005)
Original title classification not known – this clip chosen to be G
Availability of the complete title
Please be aware that this clip may contain the names, images and voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who may now be deceased.
Curator’s clip description
Two elder Indigenous men walk through the country, they are going to check if there is still water in the area. Specifically they are looking for the soakage. They come to a sandy bed, and to a plant called Ankere_ngkere, it is still green which, they say, is how they know that there is still water there. A map shows the area where the waste will be dumped, its proximity may pollute the bore water many in the community rely on. The two elders sit beneath a tree and relay the story of how the land they are on was handed back to them, and also how the area provides them with food and water.
Curator’s notes
The Indigenous traditional peoples put forward a strong and humane case for not having nuclear waste dumped in the area. The message seems to be this; if all areas of the country, as well as the people who inhabit these areas, were of equal value then dumping nuclear waste anywhere would be inconceivable. The way the Indigenous peoples interact with their land, the familiarity with which they negotiate place, and the reliance upon certain signals and occurrences in the natural world to navigate through the area, will be disrupted. Millenniums worth of knowledge, wisdoms and traditions could potentially be lost forever as a result of dumping nuclear waste.
Romaine Moreton, curator
have teachers’ notes.
