Beyond Mining Series

Beyond Mining - Protecting land, water & life.

This podcast series was recorded from a number of talks, panel discussion & workshops held between the 22nd-29th November 2020 at the Beyond Mining Counter Conference. This counter conference was organised by Blockade IMARC. Blockade IMARC is made up of an alliance of organisations that have been protesting the International Mining & Resources Conference held annually in so-called Melbourne, Australia on unceded Wurunjeri & Boon Wurrung country. Content Topics: First Nations' Sovereignty, Capitalism, Colonialism, Extractivism, Activism

For more information, please check out blockadeimarc.com

For contact, please email us at community(at)blockadeimarc.com

And follow us on facebook here

Beyond Mining - Protecting land, water & life.

This podcast series was recorded from a number of talks, panel discussion & workshops held between the 22nd-29th November 2020 at the Beyond Mining Counter Conference. This counter conference was organised by Blockade IMARC. Blockade IMARC is made up of an alliance of organisations that have been protesting the International Mining & Resources Conference held annually in so-called Melbourne, Australia on unceded Wurunjeri & Boon Wurrung country. Content Topics: First Nations' Sovereignty, Capitalism, Colonialism, Extractivism, Activism

For more information, please check out blockadeimarc.com

For contact, please email us at community(at)blockadeimarc.com

And follow us on facebook here

This session talks to Extractivism from different perspectives including Africa, Melanesia and so-called Australia

MODERATOR Nat Lowrey is an activist who has organised, campaigned and advocated on human rights and global justice issues for over 20 years with a focus on exposing extractivist industries and their impacts.

PANELISTS

Richard Spoor is a South African activist and human rights attorney based in White River Mpumalanga who has more than 25 years of experience in complex litigation. A pioneer throughout the past 20 years in the fight for workers’ rights and safety, Spoor has become what The American Lawyer called the “bête noir” of the South Africa Mining Industry because of his unwavering commitment to holding mining companies accountable for their alleged ill-treatment of workers, who are some of the country’s most underprivileged citizens.

Ron Guy is the Convenor for Vic Australian Western Sahara Association he will discuss the activism and campaigns that have tried to protect the sovereignty of Indigenous Western Saharans and their ongoing struggle for self-determination.

Duncan Gabi and Vernon Gawi are university students in Papua New Guinea who volunteer with Project Sepik. Project Sepik leads the Save the Sepik campaign which is fighting to protect the Sepik River from the Frieda River Mine, a Cines-owned and Australian registered company who is proposing to build one of the biggest copper-gold mines in the world, Duncan and Vernon will speak to their resistance and to the broader movement in promoting Melanesian resource governance for the sustainability of their Lands, Rivers and Oceans as an alternative to extractivism and development aggression.

Porobibi is a West Papuan human rights activist with a deeply rooted connection and understanding of Indigenous ways of knowing, being & doing, which greatly informs his work.  His involvement in advocacy work mobilises community, intersecting between community development and community organising.

Porobibi’s role as the Creative Director at the United Struggle Project has allowed for Indigenous voices to be amplified within creative spaces through The Change theatre and many different creative projects. Additionally, his work has involved organising and campaigning on the frontline with anti-war organisation Wage Peace. He has also been involved and assisting the direct action which occurred during Blockade IMARC in 2019.

He strongly values the notion of decolonisation and integrating Indigenous knowledge into his organising and honours his motherland of West Papua through his work.

Tim Buchanan is a Wiradjuri activist & artist with the Australian Student Environment Network

Beyond Mining - Protecting land, water & life.

This podcast series was recorded from a number of talks, panel discussion & workshops held between the 22nd-29th November 2020 at the Beyond Mining Counter Conference. This counter conference was organised by Blockade IMARC. Blockade IMARC is made up of an alliance of organisations that have been protesting the International Mining & Resources Conference held annually in so-called Melbourne, Australia on unceded Wurunjeri & Boon Wurrung country. Content Topics: First Nations' Sovereignty, Capitalism, Colonialism, Extractivism, Activism

For more information, please check out blockadeimarc.com

For contact, please email us at community(at)blockadeimarc.com

And follow us on facebook here

ALTERNATIVES & VISIONING: FOR OUR FUTURES

For the last online session of the Blockade IMARC Beyond Mining counter conference, we will hear visions for a better future and have space to dream and discuss each of our visions.

Speakers:

Professor Yin Paradies – Wakaya man and expert in cultural competency and Indigenous knowledges.

Marianna – a Latin American feminist perspective of alternatives to extractivism (pre-record)

Dandara – Landless Workers Movement, Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, MST

Brasil Dani (they/them) – Izquierda Guevarista of Chile, working with the Chilean popular movement.

Ron Guy – Convenor for Vic Australian Western Sahara Association

… Many more to be announced!

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Beyond Mining - Protecting land, water & life.

This podcast series was recorded from a number of talks, panel discussion & workshops held between the 22nd-29th November 2020 at the Beyond Mining Counter Conference. This counter conference was organised by Blockade IMARC. Blockade IMARC is made up of an alliance of organisations that have been protesting the International Mining & Resources Conference held annually in so-called Melbourne, Australia on unceded Wurunjeri & Boon Wurrung country. Content Topics: First Nations' Sovereignty, Capitalism, Colonialism, Extractivism, Activism

For more information, please check out blockadeimarc.com

For contact, please email us at community(at)blockadeimarc.com

And follow us on facebook here

Hear from some of the incredible grassroots community protectors that are putting themselves in the way of coal mines, gold mines, logging and more. Our presenters will tell some stories of their resistance so you can get ideas for your own projects and learn how to get involved.

PANELISTS

Amy – Frontline Action on Coal

Frontline Action on Coal (FLAC) is a movement, made up of people like you from across the continent, who aim to end the unnecessary extraction of fossil fuels while bringing about climate justice and creating meaningful change in the world. Using collective power to highlight injustices and disrupt the status quo, we are on the frontlines, transforming the way we relate to each other and the world.

Phaedra Press – No Wombat Gold

No Wombat Gold are the community of the Wombat State Forest concerned about a renewal of gold mining in the area. Exploratory drilling began in June 2020 near Blackwood without any community consultation. We are in a water catchment at the source of the Werribee and Lerderderg rivers with endangered species. It is also a popular tourist area. A protest four days later got media and helped drive that company out of the forest for further test drilling. We suspect it was shareholder posturing as other attempts to mine gold in the wider forest have been thwarted by an inability to get a water permit. But another company plans to start exploratory drilling for small scale mining next year. They assure us their style of mining is environmentally sound with no inconvenience to residents. We shall see. As it is unlikely we can stop the exploratory licence drilling, we are getting ready to fight any mining licence application.

Lynn Benn – Knitting Nannas

The Knitting Nannas Against Gas (KNAG) peacefully and productively protest against the destruction of our land and water. KNAG draws on a broad history of knitting used as a tool for non-violent political activism.

Dr Lisa Searle – Forest blockader in Lutruwita/Tasmania.

Alana Mountain – Forest Conservation Victoria

Forest Conservation Victoria is a grassroots group that are taking a stand against the destructive logging that is happening all over Victoria. We practice non-violent direct action to campaign for permanent protection of forests and wildlife.

Alice Hardinge – Protect Warburton Ranges

Protect Warburton Ranges is a local community action group protecting the future of our Warburton Ranges. We take a stand against all native forest logging in the Central Highlands and across Victoria.

This session will explore the Rights of Nature through the milestone cases of Ecuador and the movement for Rights of Nature in Australian and internationally.

Moderator: Neylan Aykut, Melbourne Rainforest Action Group (MRAG)

Speakers:

Carlos Zorilla, co-founder and vice president of DECOIN (Defensa y Conservacion Ecologica de Intag/Ecological Defense and Conservation of Intag) – a grassroots organization in the Intag region of Ecuador.

Liz Downes, Rainforest Information Centre

Dr Michelle Maloney is Co-Founder and National Convenor of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA), Adjunct Senior Fellow, Law Futures Centre, Griffith University; and Director of the New Economy Network Australia (NENA) and Future Dreaming Australia. She advocates for systems change, in order to shift industrialised societies from a human-centred, to an Earth-centred governance system.

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Beyond Mining - Protecting land, water & life.

This podcast series was recorded from a number of talks, panel discussion & workshops held between the 22nd-29th November 2020 at the Beyond Mining Counter Conference. This counter conference was organised by Blockade IMARC. Blockade IMARC is made up of an alliance of organisations that have been protesting the International Mining & Resources Conference held annually in so-called Melbourne, Australia on unceded Wurunjeri & Boon Wurrung country. Content Topics: First Nations' Sovereignty, Capitalism, Colonialism, Extractivism, Activism

For more information, please check out blockadeimarc.com

For contact, please email us at community(at)blockadeimarc.com

And follow us on facebook here

POLICING 101: WHY POLICE ARE NOT OUR FRIENDS

CO-FACILITATORS:

Peta Malins – Settler on Unceded Land, Senior Lecturer, Criminology and Justice Studies RMIT University

Marian Hart – settler, organiser, Latin American Solidarity Network, Australian Student Environment Network

PANELLISTS

Meriki Onus – Gunnai and Gunditjmara organiser and co-founder Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance

Tim Buchanan – Wiradjuri activist & artist, Australian Student Environment Network

Anne-lise Ah-fat – settler, organiser and co-founder Undercurrent Community Education Project, Transformative Justice Network, IRL Infoshop, IRL Prisoner Letter-Writing group

FACEBOOK EVENT: https://www.facebook.com/events/1096165880816413

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Beyond Mining - Protecting land, water & life.

This podcast series was recorded from a number of talks, panel discussion & workshops held between the 22nd-29th November 2020 at the Beyond Mining Counter Conference. This counter conference was organised by Blockade IMARC. Blockade IMARC is made up of an alliance of organisations that have been protesting the International Mining & Resources Conference held annually in so-called Melbourne, Australia on unceded Wurunjeri & Boon Wurrung country. Content Topics: First Nations' Sovereignty, Capitalism, Colonialism, Extractivism, Activism

For more information, please check out blockadeimarc.com

For contact, please email us at community(at)blockadeimarc.com

And follow us on facebook here

This panel discussion aims to consider how environmental campaigners can decolonise our minds when addressing colonialism, extractivism and environmental destruction. At the panel discussion, we will unpack how decolonising requires non-indigenous activists to critically examine our power structures, our governance, our social values and our ways of thinking, and identify assumptions that are fundamentally colonialist so that we can weed them out, making us more receptive to listening to and cantering the voices of First Nations Peoples both here in Australia and around the world.

MODERATOR: Apsara Sabaratnam teaches in the areas of Organisation Behaviour and Managing Diversity at University. She is the Secretary of Multicultural Greens Victoria, a member of Stand Together Against Racism and one of the organisers of Blockade IMARC.  Apsara is an intersectional feminist and a climate activist who has worked in the community as a tireless and fearless advocate for environmental and social justice causes. She believes movements for change can only occur when we build coalitions between unions, migrant communities and climate and social justice groups.

PANELISTS

Jessie Ferrari (They/Them) is a proud Trans and Queer Yorta Yorta person, living on sovereign and stolen Wurundjeri land. They are an ecologist and activist, who does research around Indigenous (particularly Koorie) scientific knowledge and how it can be used to care for country and help to decolonize science

Lungol Wekina is a writer, performer, podcaster, and activist living on stolen Bedegal land. His portfolio includes poetry, prose, podcasts, short stories, and essays. Wekina’s work centres his indigenous, Black, and queer identities and is primarily about decolonisation, social justice, and environmental protection. You can typically find him at [redacted]. He is also an Aries.

Ruchira Talukdar is a doctoral candidate in the School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Technology Sydney. Her PhD thesis compares coal conflicts and protest movements in India and Australia. Ruchira has worked within the environmental movement in India, with Greenpeace, and Australia, with Greenpeace and the Australian Conservation Foundation. She is a regular contributor to environmental politics at New Matilda and Newsclick (in India).

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Beyond Mining - Protecting land, water & life.

This podcast series was recorded from a number of talks, panel discussion & workshops held between the 22nd-29th November 2020 at the Beyond Mining Counter Conference. This counter conference was organised by Blockade IMARC. Blockade IMARC is made up of an alliance of organisations that have been protesting the International Mining & Resources Conference held annually in so-called Melbourne, Australia on unceded Wurunjeri & Boon Wurrung country. Content Topics: First Nations' Sovereignty, Capitalism, Colonialism, Extractivism, Activism

For more information, please check out blockadeimarc.com

For contact, please email us at community(at)blockadeimarc.com

And follow us on facebook here

EXTRACTIVISM IS NOT DEVELOPMENT!

10:30 am – 11:30 am Political and historical context

In the second part we will look at campaigns from different parts of Latin America, from grassroots organisations and First Nations people on the front line of resistance and struggles.

Those who are fighting & denouncing extractivist neoliberal policies, in this case, currently implemented by mining corporations.

11:45-1:30pm – Campaigns – struggles and resistances