You can go looking for footage of Australia’s environment minister Murray Watt announcing his approval of the Burrup Gas Hub extension—one of the world’s biggest liquified national gas projects, which is now set to remain open until 2070—but you won’t find any.
Federal ministers are federal ministers because they know the game: Never descend to the personal. Never get your hands dirty. Never allow your voice, your body, your hesitant breath to come near the flame. Why would you, when you can do it all by media release?
But for opponents of such madness, hiding behind a media release isn’t an option. Defenders of Country must physically immerse themselves in the places they are protecting: Marching, sweating under the sun, shouting at pitiless concrete.
For First Nations activists, this has always been so, ever since Australia’s colonial project painted the same binary: The tailored Englishman, the ‘naked savage’. But the bonds between extractor and his allies are only ever transactional, driven by mutual convenience and fear. Watt may have his lobbyists, but ultimately he’s alone, with his media release.
The bonds of the defender, on the other hand, are longstanding, communal and widespread. And they’re often led by women.