United
to Protect Our Water
101 Knitting Nannas from around NSW converged
on Parliament House in Sydney on International Women’s Day (March 8) to protest
about water mismanagement and the lack of effective government action to protect
river and groundwater health. The theme of the protest was “No Water no Life”.
The Nannas came from Loops (local Nanna
groups) in the Northern Rivers, Grafton, Coonabarabran, Dubbo, Midcoast, New
England-North West, Central Coast, Gloucester, Hunter Valley, Illawarra, and
Sydney.
The Nannas have long been very concerned
about unwanted water impacts around NSW – issues which have been raised with
elected representatives over a number of years.
· These include impacts on urban water catchments from coal mines - the
Wallarah 2 mine on the Central Coast and the Hume mine in the Southern
Highlands as well as the long-wall mining in the Illawarra which leads to
massive water loss into mines.
· The North West of the state is also impacted by coal mines which use vast
amounts of water – Whitehaven’s Maules Creek mine and the proposed Vickery
mine.
· Then there’s the threat to groundwater from Santos’ gasfield in the
Pilliga State Forest. This project is slated to extract 35 billion litres of
groundwater – most of it in the first five years.
· But the most dramatic impact is the most recent – the Darling fish kills
- the result of years of mismanagement and favouring of irrigators over the
health of the river system.
The Nannas assembled in Martin Place where
they donned their specially made t-shirts bearing a picture of a Nanna
declaring “The Water Needs You” (in the spirit of the Lord Kitchener First World
War recruiting poster) and their yellow, red and black suffragette-style sashes
emblazoned with “No Water No Life”.
After a group photo under the big banner
(“United to Protect Our Water”), the Nannas walked to Parliament House and
ranged themselves along the fenceline.
There they used their sashes to tie on to the iron railing of the fence
in the manner of the suffragettes.
The brightly-dressed Nannas with their
banners and their singing and chanting attracted a great deal of attention from
pedestrians and those driving along busy Macquarie Street. A highlight of the
street performance was the powerful rendition by Nanna Purl Stockinstitch of
her poem about the death of farmer George Bender who was hounded by a CSG
company in Queensland. The Nannas hoped
that the pollies in our parliament heard and took note of the effect the
unconventional gas industry has had - and continues to have - on the lives of communities
in gasfields.
Various politicians met with the Nannas on
the footpath and were presented with their “knagging list” - the Nannas’
demands for action.
While the theme of the protest focused on the
major problems with rivers and water, the Nannas demands were much broader.
They included a call for immediate climate action, transition to 100%
renewables, a state-wide ban on gas extraction (including in the Pilliga),
proper protection of Aboriginal sacred sites and revocation of the draconian anti-protest
laws brought in by the current NSW Government.
The Knitting Nannas Against Gas and Greed are
hopeful that all of the state political parties will accept their calls for
effective action on these important matters. It should be noted that the Nannas,
who are very concerned about the protection of the land and water for future
generations, are non-party political and have a policy of annoying all
politicians equally – something we aim to continue doing!
- Leonie Blain
Grafton Loop of the Knitting Nannas Against
Gas & Greed
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