LT – Black Power with Uncle Jim Everett-puralia meenamatta

Murri Country

Tune in for a very special DOUBLE episode of Let’s Talk – Black Power as Ruby catches up with Uncle Jim Everett-puralia meenamatta. He is from the clan plangermairreenner of the Turbuna (Mt Ben Lomond) people in Tasmania.

In this wide-ranging conversation, Uncle Jim talks us through his childhood, growing up between Flinders Island, Tasmania and Gippsland, Victoria, and leaving school at 14 and spending 15 years working as a fisherman and merchant seaman, 3 years in the Australian Regular Army, working as a steeplejack, rigger, and many other skilled jobs. Ruby & Uncle Jim reflect on his 50 years of formal involvement in the Aboriginal Struggle, including a long history working in and around Aboriginal Affairs, in community organisations, and on the frontlines of the struggle to protect Country and fight for land rights. Uncle Jim talks about his experiences traveling around the continent and visiting remote Aboriginal communities, learning about the diverse ways that communities are fighting for Country and defending their land against the ecologically destructive processes of mining, deforestation and pollution.

They also talk about some of Uncle Jim’s current work with the Bob Brown Foundation, and his long engagement with land and forest defence struggles in lutruwita, from the Franklin River protests in the 1980s, as well as the campaigns to protect the takayna rainforest, and most recently, the Styx forest campaign. As he explains, the consequences of continued logging of old-growth native forests are “far beyond reason” and the “impacts on the relational ecosystems not only cause major imbalance of the whole native forest network in the Styx Valley, but also to Palawa / Pakana people.”

All in all, another epic interview with a key figure in the Black Power movement in lutruwita. Get yourself a cuppa, get your notebook at the ready, and let us know what you think!

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