Googathamoolamunda (to assist these petitioners you may donate online to Bank SA A/C - BSB: 105-100 a/c no. 00 31 697540 - a/c name: Suzanne Ruth Haseldine)

The Honourable the President and Members of the Legislative Council in this present Parliament assembled:-

The humble Petition of the undersigned residents of South Australia Respectfully sheweth:-

PROLOGUE
The Googatha peoples are reaching out to the world to expose the wrong process that the South Australian State and the Federal Governments' Native Title regime have implemented to the detriment of their sacred lands and waters.

The Yellabinna Regional Reserve, the Yumbarra Conservation Park and the Pureba Conservation Park are, as a result, in more danger than ever with mineral and heavy metal mining exploration leases now having been granted over these their ancestral lands.

We HEREBY object to this invasion of their cultural heritage.

We call to mind the catalogue of injustices committed upon the Googatha Peoples from the time of colonization, including the separation of families and the impact on all of us in South Australia, and the global impact, of the fallout of the British Atomic testing in the north of Googatha land (Maralinga, Emu field); remembering always that selling and negotiating the loss of land was never a part of their culture.

They have launched this petition for us to RECORD the names and comments of people who object to this desecration of their lands and culture, past and present, and who petition the South Australian Government to recognize and respect the Googatha traditional lands and that no mining or exploration to take place in the Yellabinna, Yumbarra, and Pureba region, without compromise, and that there forever proudly be a strong, sovereign Googatha land and culture.

Googatha STATEMENT
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Native Title fails to up-hold truth for Googatha land, people and culture.

We, the Googatha Peoples, are reaching out to the world to expose the incorrect native title procedures that the South Australian State and the national Australian Federal Governments Native Title regime have taken in the case of our sacred lands and waters.

We know that Googatha are not the only peoples hurt and betrayed by Native Title.

However it is the government that has set this system up.

It is time to look at the list of injustices committed upon the Googatha people from the time of colonization, which includes the separation of our families and the British atomic testing north of the Googatha Peoples region.

Having survived through all this disruption to our cultural ways, we are now required by government to prove our connection to country through the native title procedures.

We want the Australian governments to prove their connection to this land, and then we shall compare the two.

The governments fail to see how insulting and disempowering this demand is.

It is encouraging division amongst our communities and it is governments attempting to use once again divide and rule tactics to destroy the unity of the people they are taking from.

Selling out and negotiating the land was never a part of our culture.

It is a part of a system that is not of this land, but it is used to generate money and feed an industry that benefits only the few.

At present our country is under greater threat than ever, with exploration leases having been granted over the Yellabinna, Yumbarra and Pureba regions with the extensive vision of sand and heavy mineral mining, north of Ceduna in South Australia.

There is also the horror of the Olympic Dam uranium mine at Roxby Downs, which has been in operation for over twenty years and is now at the dawn of a new expansion.

We object to these and other developments, because there is no trade of land for money in our law and culture, and there is no compensation for a broken heart.

Native Title for Googatha, is a farce and an insult, given that the Australian government proposal for the function of a regime of Native Title has never served its original purpose.

First, there was the rejection of the original claims by Yabi Dinah-Googatha and the subsequent forced amalgamation of Yabi Dinah-Googatha with other nation/claimant groups, creating a distortion of traditional land boundaries.

Secondly, in 2004, a native title meeting was held at Spear Creek, where our elders were asked to put the Googatha boundaries down on the map. They did so, but only later found out that these boundaries and their responses were to be ignored.

Thirdly, there seems to be no protection available through the South Australian State Government.

This was shown when its P.I.R.S.A. Department ignored the proper advice of the sister Department of Environment and Heritage, as P.I.R.S.A. issued exploration licences to Adelaide Resources & Inco Ltd in an environmentally important area, and which, more importantly, is a culturally and spiritually important area to Googatha.

Fourthly, there was no true consultation with the Googatha Peoples, who have been closely connected and in contact with the land since time began.

Mining and exploitation of the natural gifts of the land, threatens our very existence.

It has become clear that we cannot rely upon the South Australian or Australian governments to have a true Indigenous interest at heart through any of their sectors.

Finally, the following signatories, Googatha and non-Googatha people, are supporters of Googatha Peoples who will never sign off on their country.

We Googatha will never enter into a Native Title agreement nor any I.LU.A., as there is no trust or assurance that it is of any proper benefit to the land or to our community.

Our Googatha families will never sell-out on our country, despite the apparent representation or consents given by any Googatha through Native Title or otherwise.

As far as we are concerned representation or consents by any Googatha do not hold.

We will stand and fight until truth and justice is up-held for the traditional Googatha Peoples' land and culture.

May this plea be read and circulated far and wide to know of the strong Googatha Peoples who are working in unity to take action to prevent the desecration of the land through mining, native title agreements and the genocidal laws of the Australian Government.

We are the caretakers.

We take this stand not solely by choice, but because we have a responsibility to our ancestors, and to the future generations to come, for all people.

Googatha Moola Munda - END of Statement.

Your petitioners therefore pray that your Honourable House will:

Recognize and respect the Googatha traditional lands and will do all that is required to ensure that no mining or exploration to take place in the Yellabinna, Yumbarra, and Pureba region;

And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.