A message from the South-east Saltwater Council

Not without us, if it’s about us

Traditional Owners have never surrendered rights and authority to Country, including Sea Country. All Country was protected and cared for by our Ancestors for thousands and thousands of years and is cared for by our descendants today.

Before continuing with our message, we wish to pay respects to our Ancestors, men and women, for the strength, resilience, knowledge and wisdom they shared and applied to caring for Country and their communities. They knew, as we know today, that the health of Country is connected to the identity, health and wellbeing of our people. They knew that all Country – land, rivers, oceans and all living within it  is interconnected and interdependent, and must be cared for in that way. Caring for Country also required, and continues today to include specific roles and responsibilities for men and women, alongside collective responsibility.

Our cultural and biocultural landscapes are unique. We are one of the oldest continuing cultures in the world, and our Country, all Country, is home to a vast array of plants, animals and places that have a cultural and practical value to us all. Today’s cultural landscapes reflect how we engage with our world and experience the surroundings. While colonisation resulted in our Land and Sea Country being broken up into artificial land and sea tenures and associated colonising management regimes, we remain connected to our Country, the cultural landscapes and our biocultural values that continue across these artificial boundaries today.

Country is a place of belonging, and way of believing and living, including culture, identity, spirituality, language, law, family, sustainable economy and trade.

Since dispossession and colonisation, Sea Country has been significantly and negatively impacted by a different world view and values. We are deeply saddened about the degradation that has happened as a result of dispossession and colonising approaches to the use and management of Sea Country.

Our voices, our values, and the knowledge passed down to us over many generations have been ignored to the detriment of Sea Country, and all people today.

We note that Marine Parks were created in Australia, including in the south-east marine region, in an attempt to conserve small pieces of our precious Sea Country. As a global warming hotspot  in the top 10% globally  we have no time to waste in working together as partners today to address degradation and to protect Sea Country for generations going forward.

Moving forward for the wellbeing of our Sea Country and people, we must take back control of our inherited rights and responsibilities to care for Country. We must be active leaders and respected partners in the fight to protect and preserve fragile marine and coastal Country for all. The time is now for our Saltwater Council, for Traditional Owners of the South-east Marine Parks, to unite and work together in the interests of our marine parks, connected oceans, coastlines, waterways and landscapes for generations that follow us.