Yaegl family on ABC's Message Stick

Last week Bloodline Series on ABC TV's Message Stick featured The Randall-Parker Family from the Clarence River area in northern NSW. The "stars' of the program were Reverend Lenore Parker, a Deacon of the Anglican Church, and her daughters Frances Belle, Susan and Catherine.

Message Stick presenter Miriam Corowa opened with:

Yet, like other Yaegl people, they draw their strength from those generations that have walked before them. I hope you enjoy Bloodlines.

The program was terrific. It provided a wonderful opportunity for viewers to gain a better understanding of how Yaegl people draw their strength from the generations that have walked before them.

Lenore and her daughters paid tribute to the pivotal role of their mother and grandmother, respectively.

Lenore Parker:

I'm a Yaegl woman, born in this beautiful part of Australia, the north-east coast of Australia, in Yaegl country, and I'm the eldest daughter of the marriage of Wallace and Jesse. And...I have nine other brothers and sisters from that union.

Frances Belle Parker:
My nan ... had a big presence, but she was so gentle, like one of the most gentle people that you could ever meet.... even now, when she's not here, her spirit always is.

Frances Belle

Susan Parker:

Nan just had the most gentle nature...she'd always make time for you ...she was happiest when she was with her family.

Susan

Catherine

Lenore with her sister Judy after Lenore's ordination

Credits: Words and images from ABC TV's Message Stick

MDBA understatement of the year!

Even a bad situation can elicit a laugh or two as Mike Taylor demonstrates with this classic understatement reported by Aunty ABC last week:"But Victorian farmers in Shepparton believe diverting water from the Clarence is still an option. "I think the Murray Darling Basin Commission has done a marvellous job of identifying the needs of the environment. I was just wondering if you could give it a little bit of attention to the needs of irrigators by redirecting some of the big flows of water that run straight into the sea every year like on the Clarence River in NSW and redirect them through a tunnel and through to the darling river and supply a new stream of income water to the whole pool in the environment rather than cutting back all the time. We need more water and there's thousands and thousands of gigalitres of water that just run straight into the sea in this country." Murray Darling Basin Authority Chair Mike Taylor told the Shepparton meeting this week, it's not on the agenda."First of all I'm going to do two things here. I'm going to explain what our brief is which is to deal with the water that's in the Murray Darling Basin so we don't actually get to look at those alternatives. The second bit I am going to say though about taking water from the Clarence, having talked to many people who operate on the Clarence, they're not actually keen on diverting the water across the Great Dividing Range."
Too bluidy right we're not keen!

No comment required ... the picture says it all

Source: The Readers Panel SMH 16/10/10

That effin b@stard Tony Burke!

Federal Water Minister Tony Burke thinks he's playing cute by not ruling out damming the Clarence River and piping water across the Great Dividing Range into the Murray Darling Basin.
Does he really think that the Clarence Valley mob are so stupid that they don't know he'd pander to the Independents on just about anything if it meant that Labor could stay on top of the muck heap?
It's as plain as a pikestaff that wannabe water vandal Tony Windsor is going after NSW coastal rivers and that the Clarence heads his wish list.
This is going to be a trying time for the Labor Member for Page Janelle Saffin as she pits herself against the big boys in her party and vested interests in the Basin.
As for the Coalition - even though they probably hold the most federal seats along the Murray Darling they can sit back and let Windsor and the irrigators do all the political biting and tearing at the Gillard Government without having to show their hand until the House votes on the final version of the Basin Plan.

Journalist Rodney Stevens writing in The Daily Examiner on 16th of October:
"FEDERAL Water Minister Tony Burke has not ruled out diverting Clarence River water as a solution to irrigation problems in the Murray Darling basin.
Facing severe backlash from irate farmers about the proposed reduction in irrigation allocations at public consultation meetings held by the Murray Darling Basin Authority this week, Mr Burke said he would not discount any options as solutions to help revive Australia's 'food bowl'.
"The consultation is real and I'm not going to play the game of ruling things in or out," he said.
"Lots of options will be put on the table in the next few months and I don't want people to hesitate from putting ideas on the table."
Mr Burke hinted the enormousness of the engineering involved in a diversion may save the Clarence River.
"Certainly in the past, projects like this have not been considered as practical as other options," he said.
Outraged at the suggestion of any potential for diversion by Minister Burke, Federal Member for Page Janelle Saffin said she would fight to see that the Clarence remained untouched.
"I will stand by my community. Not one drop goes from the Clarence," she said.
Ms Saffin said she would be raising the issue of any potential diversion in parliament next week.
"They can all rack off. I will make that clear next week," she said."