Halt Rocla Sand Mine's Proposed Destruction of Aboriginal Women's Fertility Site & Cultural History

"Auntie Beve" Spiers writes to protect her people's living Tribal culture and history:

My Tribal name is Goolabeen. I am a fully Initiated Law and Medicine Woman of the Alleyerwere Tribe of Utopia from the Central Desert. But I am better and more widely known as Auntie Beve, particularly in the Jails of NSW, where I have just retired after 29 years working with Aboriginal prisoners – being there for them 24/7 as an Elder, an Aboriginal Art and Culture teacher, suicide Counsellor and Mental health Worker.

As I was born here in Woy Woy 78 years ago, I speak as an Elder of the Darkinoong Tribe from the Central Coast of N.S.W. And today, I speak on behalf of all Central Coast Aboriginal women with the support of the Aboriginal men and of many non-Aboriginal people who know of the importance of preserving the Sacred Aboriginal Dreaming Track.

A New Zealand company ‘Rocla Sandmining’ is planning to build a mine on an Aboriginal Women’s Fertility Rites Songline and Teaching Place. This Songline is part of the Sacred Dreaming Track, and its destruction would destroy with it tens of thousands of years of Aboriginal heritage. Her Majesty’s NSW Government has approved the company to go ahead with their stage 4 extension, which comprises a massive 30 metre deep hole gouged out of the ground that will take our Sacred Sites out completely.

...Black history and culture is recorded and taught in ways that are different from the White Fellas ways, but are no less important to its people. White Australia has The Mitchell Library, given funded and maintained by the government, to house all your important papers, records, books, events, stories and artefacts. At the Mitchell Library, all your White History is kept safe from vandalism, kept safe for posterity.

We, the original custodians of this land, had no paper, pens or writing equipment like yours to record our history on. Instead, back then, we used our recall, our memory to re-tell our stories and the law, and to re-sing our songs of what came before us, what needed to be passed down, carried on, down through time for posterity – just like the white man’s way.

Our people also had the dedication and patience to carve those stories and laws into hard rock platforms, to build entire sites that record our history, our culture and our stories – where we hoped they would be preserved for posterity. Every symbol or line we carved may have taken months to complete, but how else were we to permanently record – for our children, and their children – the stories, the law and the history of the original custodians of the land? And this area is full of such sites.

Famous French Archeologist Jean Clottes viewed some of these rock platforms when visiting the area, and said “This area of the Central Coast has the greatest diversity of Rock Art in the world that I have ever seen”. This diversity is part of what Rocla Sand mines want to destroy – part of our Dreaming track, an important Song-line – the Women's Fertility Rites Teaching Place. This Dreaming Track goes right around Australia through every tribal country, and is a common space which all can use to walk, hunt and gather, visit relatives, attend important meetings and participate in special Sacred Ceremonies. It has very great significance in telling our History, how we lived here as Hunters and Gatherers, as custodians of the land, how we evolved, and what roles we play in life.

The Dreaming Track must never be broken. Its ancient history cannot be lost. It is our Mitchell Library. And like yours, it must be saved for posterity. Lose it and it is gone forever. And that would be a shameful blight on the history of this land.

The Women’s Fertility Rites Songline and Teaching Place is complex and includes many ceremonial aspects that Her Majesty’s NSW Government and Rocla Mining Company have failed to acknowledge.

Aboriginal history is drawn on the rock platforms, painted in the caves and told by the stone arrangements we left in this area – and all over Australia – to tell our stories. We also told and sung our stories orally. Called Song-lines, these were learnt by the boys and the girls as they grew up and were old enough to go through ceremony. Each Song-line is part of the Dreaming Track, the sacred rites of passage for Aboriginal people. That is why the whole of the story, the whole of the Song-line, and the whole of the Dreaming Track, must be preserved and re-told.

The Women’s Fertility Rites are a very important time for our young women and an integral part of my people’s culture. The sacred site that has hosted these rites for thousands of years, and witnessed the passage of generations of women before me, must be protected from the threat of mining. It is essential that this Sacred dreaming track and its Songline never gets lost or destroyed. The Sacred history of my people must be preserved.

We, the Elders, still take our daughters and nieces to this Special Women's Fertility Rites site, and even though they may not choose to go through this ceremony today, they show respect for the Women's law, its history, and its ancient ancestry.

Well, we used to take them and visit this Sacred site… until Rocla Sand Mining and the NSW Government decided last year that Aboriginal Women could no longer visit their Sacred Place. THIS UPSET US VERY MUCH, BEING STOPPED FROM VISITING OUR ANCIENT SACRED SITE. It reminded us of the time they took our Languages from us and never let us speak it again for fear of punishment.

IT IS NOT RIGHT THAT HER MAJESTY’S NSW GOVERNMENT ALLOWS A COMPANY TO STOP THE DARKINOONG AND THE GURINGAI PEOPLE FROM PRACTICING ITS ANCIENT CULTURE. AND IT IS NOT RIGHT THAT A NEW ZEALAND COMPANY DESTROYS OUR SACRED SITES SO IT CAN TAKE OUR LAND’S RESOURSES FOR PROFIT.

The Women’s Fertility Rites Songline and Teaching Place, the carving of ‘The Woman of High Degree’, the Sacred linear stone arrangement, the junction of the 3 Creeks, the figure of Durramulan … the sacred archaeology of this entire area must be preserved, and its Black History respected.

AUSTRALIA IS SUPPOSED TO BE THE COUNTRY OF THE ‘FAIR GO’. SO WE ASK ROCLA SANDMINING AND HER MAJESTY’S NSW GOVERNMENT TO GIVE US, THE DARKINOONG AND THE GURINGAI PEOPLE, THE SOVEREIGN CARETAKERS OF THIS LAND, A FAIR GO TOO!