Recently advertising appeared on Social Media for an upcoming event related to “Saving Kariong Sacred Lands.”

Walk for Kariong Sacred Lands

Advertised as a Walk 4 Kariong, this event was being run by Emma French, of the GuriNgai affiliated ‘Coast Environmental Alliance’ (CEA) founded by non-Aboriginal man Jake Cassar.

To find out more, I had a quick yarn with the organiser of this event, Ms Emma French.

My first question was simply whether the Walk for Kariong Sacred Lands event was being organised by Ms French, to which she replied “it’s just a day that we are going to meet up, as a group, and do some of the 5-Lands Walk.

‘It’s just a social group getting together, it’s not like an actual organised event. There are t-shirts, for the cause, which people will be wearing on the day. It’s a social event, with our group, that are going to walk together, to help the wildlife. We are going to be walking together, that’s it, it’s not a protest; it’s a family friendly walk’, Ms French said.

“The thing is, we are doing it on that day because Darkinjung Land Council (Darkinjung Local Aboriginal Land Council (DLALC)), and ‘5-Lands’ are pretty much the same people. The 5-Lands is sponsored by, supported by the Land Council (DLALC) so they are quite entwined.”

Ms French claimed that, ‘Kariong Sacred Lands was saved by the same group of people around 10-12 years ago.

“The people that saved the land are from the same group as I am from (Coast Environmental Alliance, CEA). Darkinjung (DLALC) owns a big chunk of that and they are trying to rezone it, so they can build on it. So all those people who were fighting back then, are back up again.”

Ms Emma French went on to say ‘there’s (sic) different groups, and they change over the years, but the group that we are belonging (sic) to now, well are just part of, we are just members, is CEA, Coast Environmental Alliance, set up by Jake Cassar. So it’s all linked, we’re all linked together. We have been doing protests and rallies, we’ve tried to get Liesl Tesch to listen, but she won’t and keeps saying her hands are tied.’

Ms French described that her group and Save Kariong Sacred Lands were essentially the same group, while Coast4One is also run by another member of CEA, Vicki Burke, whom Ms French described as being among Evan and Steven Strong as ‘the original people who fought to save Kariong’.

I mentioned that all these different groups, of essentially the same half dozen people, seem completely focussed on one small parcel of land, one of the very few that happens to be owned by the local Aboriginal controlled organisation.

“Right now that’s the land that is at threat. We know if we don’t say anything, and just let that (the development) go through, it will be very easy for them to take down other sites.’

At this point I sought clarification on who Ms French meant when she said ‘them’.

‘Darkinjung! The developers! Darkinjung is a land developer, they’re a council and a land developer. We know that Darkinjung is a developer. The people will be very much aligned with them (DLALC), their families, and hire them to build and develop the land.”

To summarise what we’ve learnt so far – Ms Emma French had planned a ‘social event’ including half a dozen (at least) organisations that have for the last few years been hyper focused on Kariong, and were now selling t-shirts and marching together in a non-protest, in solidarity (with each other) against the local Aboriginal controlled Local Aboriginal Land Council, on the day of the 5-lands walk…

Ms French replied ‘well the t-shirts were not for the event, they were something we were always going to get done anyway. We were always planning to do the t-shirts, the t-shirts are coinciding with the event, people might wear them for the event, or wear them if they are doing the event or not. I back the local Aboriginal People opposing the development such as Paul Craig, Renee Sales, and Colleen Fuller.’

I asked if Ms French was familiar with the very public controversies regarding ⅔ of her ‘Aboriginal People’ who were in reality non-Aboriginal, and that only Renee Sales is an Aboriginal Person.

‘Talk to Jake Cassar, he does everything, and I just do the graphic design.’

The topic turned to CEA’s repeated criticism of members of DLALC allegedly not being from the Central Coast. I asked why that would matter, and why this standard was not applied to Ms French, and her compatriots who are themselves, for the most part, not from the Central Coast, as well as not being Aboriginal.

Ms French replied “I’m just doing it for the animals, to give them a voice.

We’re not intending to gate-crash the event, we’re not gate-crashing the event, we’re just walking on the beach.’

Ms French had at this stage not been in contact with 5-Lands Walk, and had no intention of doing so.

“I’ve never had to ask permission to walk on Copa Beach before.”

Goolabeen – Saving Kariong ‘Sacred Lands’