Kimberley Traditional Owners unite for the Fitzroy River Declaration

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Traditional Owners from the Fitzroy River catchment area (Image supplied)

We, women and men of good will from various spiritual, religious and scientific backgrounds from around the world, are participating in the Fez Climate Conscience Summit under the High patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI and at the invitation of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council of Morocco and the Rabita Mohammedia of Ulemas. Recommend: To consider climate change as a major threat to our life here together, to peace in the world, to the future of humanity and to life on earth;
It is well documented that First Nations people knew how to make alcoholic drinks from sweet juices and nectars well before the European invasion, but little is now known about the processes involved, the yeasts and bacteria at work, or the chemistry, taste and smell of the plants and finished products, but now the University of Adelaide is investigating these traditional practices.

Sofie Wainwright ABC Broken Hill 12 August 2016
Representatives from almost 50 Indigenous nations across the Murray-Darling Basin have begun talks to develop a treaty.

Nina Lansbury Hall, Cindy Shannon, Paul Jagals 11 July 2016
An Aboriginal traditional owner from Broome has been moved on by police for blocking Buru Energy vehicles from accessing a gas fracking site. Last year 96 per cent of his people voted against the fracking program. John Howard recognised continuing First Nations sovereignty in his Ten Point Plan for limiting Native Title he introduced after the Wik decision, promising 'bucket loads of extinguishment' and that what we've got. Companies can destroy country and even though First Nations people are sovereign, they can't do anything about it, other than protesting.

The first shipment of Australia's nuclear waste to be returned from re-processing in France has now left a French port, and will arrive on our shores by the end of the year. The return of the 25 tonnes of nuclear waste is putting renewed pressure on the Federal Government to find a location for a permanent waste dump. The shipment began its journey just a day after senior Aboriginal women gathered in Adelaide to mark their fight against a proposed dump in South Australia in the 1990s. The women say they will fight against any new move to put the waste on their land.

Tony Abbott tells us that his northern development obsession "will benefit every single Australian" but a Research Fellow in Anthropology at Australian National University writes that while this may be good news to developers, it makes many First Nations people in the region very anxious.
Today it's much harder for First Nations people to support development, as many are now able to see clearly how the costs and benefits associated with large-scale development in the region are distributed unequally.

Stephen Mayne Crikey 2 February 2015
The 2013-14 political donations data confirms a long trend in Australian politics, with the ALP still fundamentally reliant on the union movement and the Liberal Party in the thrall of big business, rent-seekers and a few wealthy families.

Ancient Indigenous Australian bush-burning could be used around the world to radically cut greenhouse gas emissions, according to United Nations research, which also challenges Prime Minister Tony Abbott's refusal to embrace the purchase of international carbon credits. Abbott has previously said buying overseas offsets sends money "offshore into dodgy carbon farms in Equatorial Guinea and Kazakhstan".
The government this month delayed considering the measure until 2017 or later, saying it would rather make cuts domestically.