“Was not their mistake once more bred of the life of slavery that they had been living?—a life which was always looking upon everything, except mankind, animate and inanimate—‘nature,’ as people used to call it—as one thing, and mankind as another, it was natural to people thinking in this way, that they should try to make ‘nature’ their slave, since they thought ‘nature’ was something outside them” — William Morris


Friday, August 31, 2012

ASLEC Australia New Zealand Liveblog

Kate Rigby acknowledges the traditional owners of the land in her intro speech. We have Auntie Di, an elder here today.

“This is part of the traditional country of my mother and grandmother and ancestors. These greetings make me feel very good for the day.”

“I've been brought up to care for country, and that's been a part of my life. I've lost many places in my country disappear. I've watched rivers go, plants go, different species of trees, animals, and I miss a lot of things and I can't show my children a lot of things. I can tell them about it but I can't show them. Mother Earth is crying in pain at the moment. It's like we've really left it to the last minute to look after the place in which we live, the place that gives us life.”

“Some places are quite devastated. It's really sad. It takes a long time to fix things and hopefully we can. Hopefully we can change the cycle. I'm glad that there are people with passion in this world.”

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