Hi everyone.
As
you are probably aware we did have a meeting at Boodjin on Friday last
and the spirits up there blessed us with some really nice weather.
Ray Marshall opened the meeting at 12:00pm or thereabouts and Uncle Merv delivered a welcome to country message.
Vince
acknowledged the start of NAIDOC Week and wished the Noongar peoples an
enjoyable time. The timing of the meeting was very good in the sense
that our efforts fall very much in line with the spirit of NAIDOC week
and what it stands for.Vince also passed on the apologies from the families based in Perth due to their commitments to organising NAIDOC Week.
The
main purpose of the meeting was to allow Department of Parks and
Wildlife (DPaW) to present to the group their proposal for the
beautification and preservation of the current picnic area at Boodjin.
Nathan Greenhill and Chris Steward attended on behalf of DPaW and Nathan
presented conceptual plans and spoke at length and sought feedback from
everyone. It was apparent that most there were quite welcoming to the
ideas placed before them. There was some discussion about positioning of
the proposed toilet facilities and the group were urged to go away and
think about things in more detail and come back to the working group
with suggestions. Nathan provided some large printed plans of the
proposal for the communities to take back and display for public
comment.
Justin McAllister from SWALSC graced us with his
presence as did Marcus Holmes, a solicitor who will be working with the
Local Government Councils to address the issues relating to the results
of the vote by the Noongar peoples to accept the State Government offer
of a settlement in the Noongar regions. Many thanks to those two for
taking such an interest in what we are, as a collaborative group,
working through in a very positive way and for traveling such long
distances.
Justin spoke very clearly about the need for us
to start to work more closely with the Gnaarla Karla Booja (GKB) working
committee moving forward as they will, in the event of a successful
outcome for the land settlement deal, be the entity who will collaborate
with DPaW on land management issues. Justin suggested that we, as a
working group, again present our current position to the GKB working
group in August/September.
There are a lot of things which
need to be worked through moving forward. We, along with DPaW, should
approach the Shire of Brookton and Pingelly to see how much in-kind
support we can get to assist with the redevelopment of the picnic area.
Such support could be in the way of access roads, surveying and pegging
of the proposed picnic area and provision of machinery to make the site
ready for any structural work.
My job as Project Coordinator is to
deliberate over these matters and make some recommendations back to the
working committee and I am certainly giving this much thought and will
have further discussions with DPaW and other members of this working
committee to work out the best way forward from here.
It
seems that Wheatbelt NRM have signed off on the Boodjin Storybook so it
can go to print. What a celebration that should be!!!! I personally
can't wait to get my hands on a copy.
I had a yarn on the side of the road with Kenny Kidna on the way back. Maybe that's a good sign??????
Stay safe and well everyone.
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