Perth Voice Interactive

ABORIGINAL elder and activist Bella Bropho still sleeps out on Heirisson Island despite Perth city council and police repeatedly confiscating tents and bedrolls to stop camping.

In an open letter sent to the PCC this week, Ms Bropho accuses the council of having “extended the limitations of your authority under the laws of WA and the commonwealth” and describes the confiscations as “criminal actions”. She demands a return of taken property.

Ms Bropho says under the WA local government act, council by-laws are “overridden by state or federal laws such as the Aboriginal Heritage Act of 1972”.

She argues people are entitled to camp at the registered Aboriginal site—listed as a camp and meeting place—because the federal law overrides bylaws. It’s a similar argument to that advanced by seasoned barrister Stephen Walker in legal missives directed at the council.

Power

“You must recognise that we, the Swan Valley Nyungah/War-juk people, are in a process of taking back our power to care for our own communities as we should,” Ms Bropho wrote.

“We have never been given the opportunity to live in our own ways… since occupation of our lands in 1829, we have been forced, by successive policies, to be a reactive people.

“Now we are trying to change to be pro-active, but we need time to do that in our own way.

“We are in the process of re-piecing together our community with our own values system, starting here at Heirisson Island. We know our values are the right way to go, because despite all the assaults on our people since the occupation of our lands, our values and our humanity has not led us to despise others or led to a hatred of the whites.

“We are aware that we represent a threat to the document culture, however it is our obligation to liberate ourselves from this system that is not working for us.

“We need to make an ideological shift, a first step to a new philosophical ideology. There is room for wadjellas (white people) to move with us, to develop a new system with us.”

The Voice asked the PCC for a response to Ms Bropho’s letter. Its new media man Michael Holland says CEO Gary Stevenson has met with Ms Bropho but “we respectfully decline to comment on this occasion”.

Likewise, he says, “the correspondence to Mr Walker is privileged and details will not be released”.

by DAVID BELL