protect larrakia country 🐊
Led by Larrakia people and supported by 350 Australia, the Protect Larrakia Country campaign is rooted in the belief that Larrakia people must once again care for their lands with the knowledge that has sustained their people for millennia.
Protect Saltwater Country:
Stop the expansion of Middle Arm
“We look at land in a different way. We don't look at it like, ‘That’s a good square there that we can build on, or let’s whack a road in there’. the Land tells us what we can do with it and we listen. we listen because we are part of the Land and the Land is part of us — and we work together to ensure safe passage into next generations.”
— Senior Larrakia Elder Aunty June Mills at the petition delivery for the campaign to return Lee Point to the care of Larrakia people
We all have special places we care for. For Larrakia people, they are especially connected to the places that hold their Creation Stories, where their Ancestors are buried, their places of Healing and Ceremony and the Sacred Lands they’ve cared for - for generations.
People who created the colony of Australia stole, extracted resources, and built their wealth from these special places. As a result, Aboriginal people have been prevented from protecting and nurturing their ancestral lands, life-giving forests and sacred waterways.
Today, many of these places are damaged - which impacts all of us.
Lee Point in Darwin is one of these special places. Lee Point is a sacred area of Larrakia Dreaming, Ceremony and history that is currently under threat of being destroyed by Defence Housing Australia to build 800 houses for the military and First National Real Estate O'Donoghue's profits.
With trees older than Australia, Lee Point is a beautiful coastal bushland teeming with life, song and Spirit. For millennia, Larrakia people have cared for the lands surrounding Lee Point. Today, they are working to protect Lee Point after people in Federal and NT government gave Defence Housing Australia permission to demolish their sacred lands and stop them from passing their culture onto the next generations.
Their goals are to protect Larrakia Country and culture, stop Defence Housing Australia from desecrating their sacred lands and ensure the NT and Federal governments return Lee Point to the care of Larrakia people.
For Larrakia people to look after these places based on thousands of years of knowledge, they need Country returned to their care. When this happens, Larrakia people can again fully enact their responsibility and guardianship of the lands we all care about.