The Victoria State Government has cut down a tree that was culturally significant to Australia’s Djab Wurrung women to make way for a highway in the state’s west.
The yellow box, known as a directions tree, was felled on Monday.
The government has defended its actions, saying that the tree was not one of those listed as requiring protection in an agreement with the Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corp, and was not the sacred directions tree that is subject to a federal court action.
Police yesterday arrested about 50 people at the site.
Among those arrested were at least two legal observers, who attended the site to ensure that police complied with the law, and several Aboriginal land protectors.
The police were at the site to protect contractors working there, a Victoria Police spokeswoman said, adding that about 40 protesters were arrested for refusing to leave a restricted access area and for failing to comply with the chief health officer’s directions.
They were released pending a summons, she added.
Ten more protesters were arrested for obstructing police and charged with offenses including intentionally obstructing an emergency service worker on duty, refusing to leave a restricted access area and failing to comply with the chief health officer’s directions.
They were bailed to reappear at Ararat Magistrates’ Court at a later date.
“Victoria Police respects people’s right to protest peacefully and are there to ensure no breaches of the peace or antisocial behavior occurs as a result of protest action at the site,” the spokeswoman said.
The protection of the birthing trees has been the subject of years of protest by the Djab Wurrung community and other Aboriginal communities in Victoria.
However, Victoria’s first Aboriginal senator, Lidia Thorpe, said that the actions of the past two days had undone any prospect of a meaningful compromise.
“We wanted a peaceful outcome,” Thorpe said. “We came with peace and in good faith, and were willing to negotiate. But heavy-handed politics from the [Victoria Premier Daniel] Andrews government has faded any hopes of that, or anything else into the future. The inherent violence of the system is being perpetrated against us on every level.”
News of the tree’s destruction was met with grief and outrage.
“I can feel the chainsaws tearing through my heart, my spirit, my Djap Wurrung body is in pain,” local resident Sissy Austin said. “Today, I lay on the floor and cried. Cried for our mother: Djap Wurrung country.”
The main birthing tree is believed to be 800 years old, and was a place where women gave birth. Placentas were mixed with seed and buried underneath the directions trees, tying them to a child’s life.
A Gunai and Gunditjamara woman, Meriki Onus, said the tree’s destruction, especially coming on a day when COVID-19 lockdown restrictions were lifted in Melbourne, showed Aboriginal Victorians that “we don’t matter to the colony.”
The tree was removed near Buangor as part of a US$157 million project to duplicate the Western Highway.
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