I've been very fortunate to
have met a lot of First Peoples right
across this country and across the world.
And the one thing that we have in common
in terms of our worldly view
is that there's no separation between land and sea.
Sea Country is very significant
to the Traditional Owners of this area.
For the turtles and dugongs,
for the reef.
The sea turtle,
that's my mum's totem.
My mom's from Tanna Island in Vanuatu.
And that's her totem, it's the sea turtle.
And that's why I love turtles,
and that's why I look after them.
On the full moon,
the males sing in the mangrove,
the male crocodiles sing to the moon.
In the past,
a lot of the women,
mainly it was women's job to go and collect eggs
and steal eggs from the
female crocodiles nest.
And that's how we kind of controlled the numbers.
I mean, my earliest memories of the reef
was probably around this island when they used
to have school camps
on Goold Island here now where we're standing.
There used to be, well,
there are still little coral reefs around the island
and I think that was my first introduction to
to the reefs.
Particular tribes
that may have an
Aboriginal language
name that may connect to the Great Barrier Reef,
If it's not there, that's loss of identity
as an Aboriginal person
and who they are and where they come from.
My favorite animal at the moment
that calls the reef home is probably the green sea turtle,
especially after Cyclone Yasi,
the numbers sort of were
decimated really.
If you look at the reef millions of years ago
now that they're finding artifacts
around the different reefs around Australia,
because in the early days that was part of our land.
Nature indicates to us if something's not right.
Around here,
all the water goes out to the sea.
We've had stories in the past
with people wanting to pipe water and send it away,
but it would change the rainforest
and it would change the ocean around here.
Because we have a lot of fresh water
running into the sea.
When you're looking
at protecting the reef and Sea Country,
you also got to look at the land
because what comes off the land goes into the water
and you've got to look at the water quality
that gets out to the reef.
For some areas, the water quality could destroy reefs.
You know,
you've got the crown-of-thorns (starfish)
that are coming back in large numbers.
Why are they coming back?
Because...bleaches, coral bleaches, all that stuff.
But it's also that a lot of our fish intake,
there's a lot of
a lot of fish being taken away from the from the reef areas.
You know, you get ghost nets,
and the turtles
and that get tangled up in the ghost nets.
They eat the plastics
fishing lines
they get tangled up in the fishing lines.
When we see this stuff, it's heartbreaking.
It makes me angry and it makes the Traditional Owners angry.
Take your rubbish home.
Protecting it personally for me, it's just
because of the importance
that it has to us as a people.
Not only us as Aboriginal people,
but the wider community as well.
Any part of losing Country
is devastating to Aboriginal people
because that's the intimate link for us.
It's who we are and where we come from.
There's an old saying.
"You can't see the forest for the trees."
Iy point of view when it comes to Saltwater Country,
you can't see the ocean for the reefs.
Don't get me wrong,
the Great Barrier Reef is such an iconic
and symbolic natural wonder of this world.
But in saying that, the elephant in the room
when it comes to saving the Great Barrier Reef
is obviously, what's our solutions to fix up the oceans?
As First Peoples
right across the planet,
we have a deep, rich and meaningful understanding
of how land and sea
act together in this story of humanity.