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| Jarmbi Githabul and friends (Photo credit: lockthegate) |
Gas mining divides Githanbul people
The gas industry is dividing an indigenous community on the north coast.
The chairman of the Githabul Nation Aboriginal
Corporation and mining consultant Trevor Close says gas represents big
opportunities for local indigenous people.
"The gas company would put money into a trust fund that would be used for language programs, education programs, scholarships, but most of all training the young Bundjalung people in how to engage in the natural gas industry in New South Wales.
"If there was a gas industry in New South Wales, mainly in like the Northern Rivers area, I predict it would employ about 30,000 people in the local region".
Mr Close says consumers across the state would benefit.
"The Githabul people, we're a Christian community and we hate to see other families across New South Wales suffer with high electricity prices and there was a way we could come together with a company, a good gas company like Metgasco, to reduce the cost of living in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales.
"I'm sure that the Githabul elders and myself as the chairman of the corporation would support that proposal."
But Githabul elder Aunty Gloria Williams says many in the community do not share the chairman's view.
She says Githabul people are custodians of the land and will be blamed for what happens to it.
"We're the ones that's made to look at like a crime on our own country when things go wrong and it will go wrong because it's gone wrong everywhere else.
"It will go wrong here on Githabul country as it did in all the other countries; over in America, up in Tara, it will go wrong here and then you know what, it will be Githabul who will be made to look like the crime".
Aunty Gloria says traditional practices could be threatened by a gas mining industry.
"We still practise our traditional methods of hunting, fishing and gathering and we do this on a regular basis and we believe the gas is going to destroy our waterways, destroy our lands and destroy us as a people.
"Once you open up one avenue it will open up all the other gas pipes to come in and mine the hell out of our country", she said.
"The main reason that most of us agreed to native title is that we thought that we were getting the land back so that we could protect it and maintain it, in it's most natural form.
"Our spirituality lays in the land, this is an act of genocide, it's act of killing our spirituality....I mean sure we get some dollars out of it but how long is that going to last".
Githabul Elder Aunty Gloria Williams told ABC North Coast that the Githabul Nation Aboriginal Corporation was under investigation by the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations (ORIC).
ORIC issued a statement to ABC North Coast: " ORIC's practice is not to confirm or deny whether a complaint has been received or if a corporation is under investigation.
ORIC only comments on outcomes of regulatory action, which is
available on our website at www.oric.gov.au ."
A document posted on the ORIC website shows two auditors were appointed in December 2013 to investigate the finances of the corporation.
