The following text is an excerpt of the post which first appeared in the Regen Narration website on the 24th May 2021.
“… This special episode departs from the usual schedule, as there’s a particularly pressing aspect to this one. Dr. Anne Poelina is a Nyikina Warrwa (Indigenous Australian) woman who belongs to the Mardoowarra, the lower Fitzroy River in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. She is also Chair of the esteemed Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council.”
“… When Anne and I last spoke for the podcast, in Broome a few years ago, I said this: “if anywhere epitomizes the critical time we’re in, it’s in the spectacular cultural and natural landscapes of her homeland. Almost incredibly, there are 40,000+ fracking wells slated for this area, along with the damming of the Fitzroy River, and more ‘old-model’ industrial agriculture. Yet the next economy is also in tow here, and this is where Anne is currently focusing her extraordinary breadth of cross-cultural knowledge and experience.”
“This is why we’re trying to encourage our fellow Australians, our brothers and sisters out there, to get to know where you live, because it’s place-based. The land is alive, the rivers are alive, the living systems are alive, the birds and the fish - everything communicates. Don’t see yourself as a human being as elitist and above other living systems. This is the gift of Indigenous People across the world, saying we want you, because your DNA is embedded here. We want you to get to know your country, to feel your country, to heal your country, because it’s all our country.”
Dr. Anne Poelina
