Micklo Corpus Camp Yulleroo
Over the last few days there has been a flurry of activity over at the camp that Micklo Corpus, senior Law man and Yawuru Traditional Custodian has manned for over two years on Yawuru country.
The camp is situated approximately 80kms out of Broome, Western Australia on the road to Derby. That is, the camp WAS situated there, complete with cyclone proof sheds and shelters that Broome Council have deemed illegal. Mick spoke to me of the continued threats and harassment he has endured including court cases and police harassment to push him off his traditional country.
A whole bunch of Micklo's supporters have over two days helped him remove right down to the last remaining bottle top from a small piece of this pristine country. Micklo's fight has been to keep it that way, yet Mitsubishi and its bastard cousins Buru Energy along with Australian federal, state and local Broome Council have forcefully acted in genocide as they seek to frack mine this country.
The following few photos document Micklo's camp being dismantled. Micklo who is down but not beaten has vowed to take this fight out to an international audience and it's with these fighting words that I've vowed to help him in that mission. As I consider Micklo's fight a testimony to his battle to protect his country, there is an urgency now in protecting this pristine Kimberley region from what would otherwise be an ecological disaster of poisoned aquifer water and fractured country that can never be repaired again.
I consider the actions of Broome Council in flagrant disregard of international evidence that frack mining results in damage to country, the actions of certain individuals who sit on the boards of corporations that support mining and rampant development in the Kimberley to be illegal, of genocide in nature, calculated devastation of country. So, as fate would have it I am meeting Micklo on his campsite with my video camera tomorrow and we will together face down these animals who disrespect this man, this community, this very nation.
I decided to stay at the camp that night on my own and in the morning I was happy to greet Micklo at his own gates. We sat together and we chatted about what it means for his people to have mining companies come and take possession of the land without approval. He likened it to "..they hold a gun to your head and ask you if you will resist or submit, so what choice do we have?".
Micklo described in detail, drawing with his finger in the pindan soil, the triple barbed wire compound that they had built around the fracking mine site on his country. He described how the compound is ringed with surveillance cameras and noted also that at different times he had seen drone technology up to 250 metres above and around the mining compound. He likened this to ecological disaster and genocide, a power play of international consortia pressuring the Australian government and the subsequent detrimental fall out for the community as a result.
