The Australian government is facing criticism after a yellow box tree with prominent cultural significance to the Aboriginal people was cut down to prepare for a new highway in the state of Victoria on Monday, October 26.
The tree, estimated to have been around 350 years old, was what is known as a ‘directions tree,’ an especially sacred symbol for Djab Wurrung women.
According to the government, the tree was not on the list of 15 trees that require protection, reports The Guardian.
Protesters gathered at the felling scene and about 50 people were arrested for refusing to leave a restricted access area and ‘failing to comply with the chief health officer’s directions, and were released pending summons,’ a Victorian police spokesperson said.
Victoria’s premier Daniel Andrews defended the state’s decision to proceed with cutting down the tree and its relation to the new highway that will be built. Speaking to the press, Andrews said: ‘We’ve been respectful, we have engaged [with the Traditional Custodians] and we have been respectful of the agreements that we have entered into.
‘This is a very dangerous road. Many people have lost their lives on this road and I am determined to get this road upgraded.’
An agreement was reached between the government and the Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation to protect 15 trees that were of cultural and spiritual significance to the Aboriginal people. These trees were clearly labelled with their coordinates and a buffer zone was established, and the tree cut down was not on the list.
However, Gunai and Gunditjamara woman, Meriki Onus, said the destruction of the tree showed Aboriginal Victorians that ‘we don’t matter to the colony’.
‘Directions trees’ or ‘birthing trees’ are believed to have been a place where Aboriginal women gave birth hundreds of years ago, burying their placentas under the trees and so symbolically tied the tree to their child’s life.
Residents and sympathisers have expressed their sadness and disappointment over the felling of the tree on social media.
I thought for a moment today that I could cry overwhelming tears with other people living in Victoria who roughed it out in a very long and hard lockdown because I played my part and I sacrificed too
…and then I was reminded that we don’t matter to the colony. pic.twitter.com/rJrt0y6AEj
— Meriki Onus (@MerikiKO) October 26, 2020
DjabWurrung land protectors being arrested and forcibly removed from country whilst ancestor trees are being desecrated @DanielAndrewsMP @sussanley you have DjabWurrung blood on your hands pic.twitter.com/9zGNrEF7TT
— Lidia Thorpe (@lidia__thorpe) October 26, 2020
I can feel the chainsaws tearing through my heart, my spirit, my DjapWurrung body is in pain. Today I laid on the floor and cried. Cried for our mother, DjapWurrung Country #DjapWurrung
— Eileen Sissy Austin (@EileenSissy) October 26, 2020
Picture: Twitter/perkinsmiki
