Traditional owners call for Pine Gap spy base shutdown
Robyn Wuth |
On a sacred stretch of desert in the heart of the continent, Traditional Owners say a US spy base is helping fuel war in Gaza while they fight for something as basic as running water.
Hundreds have converged on Mparntwe/Alice Springs to demand closure of Pine Gap intelligence facility and a rethink of Australia’s deepening American military ties.
The Close Pine Gap – Sacred Land Back convergence also opposes Australia’s involvement in the multibillion-dollar AUKUS submarine pact.
The three-day gathering marks the 60th anniversary of the agreement between Canberra and Washington that paved the way for Pine Gap’s construction on Arrernte Country.
Traditional owners say they were never consulted, even as the US insisted on “security of tenure” for the spy base.
Arrernte Apmereke-artweye traditional custodians Felicity, Wyonna and Jacquita Hayes say the facility sits on a sacred site and makes them feel complicit in war and genocide while they live without basic services.
“We want people to support us to close down Pine Gap. We want them to know it’s a sacred site,” they said in a joint statement.
“We don’t want to be feeling guilty all the time when bad things are happening overseas to little ones. We’re not the ones controlling that facility, but we feel guilty that it’s coming from our land.
“We want to see the Pine Gap facility closed so the generation coming can be safe. We want to be compensated so we can get houses at Whitegate community.”
Many custodians of the land Pine Gap sits on live at Irrkerlantye/Whitegate, about 5km from the centre of Alice Springs.
“It is our traditional land,” senior custodian Felicity Hayes said.
“Our old people walked this land and hunted and lived here before the white man came – we got culture and language, we survived colonisation.
“We’ve been asking the government for housing and essential services this whole time, however nothing has been done to provide the most basic services all people are entitled to.”
While Pine Gap enjoys long-term tenure, Whitegate residents rely on water being trucked in and power from a small set of solar panels.
There is no sewerage.
Senior Arrernte man William Tilmouth says Whitegate is “fighting for justice … justice to live on their land, to live with the same amenities everyone else takes for granted”.
First Nations leaders, anti-war and anti-AUKUS campaigners and Palestine solidarity groups from across the country are taking part in the weekend.
Professor Richard Tanter, a leading expert with the Nautilus Institute, says signals intelligence gathered via Pine Gap-controlled satellites has historically been made available to Israel.
“Unless the Australian direct and indirect military relationship to Israeli activities in the Gaza Strip are closely reviewed … it is not possible for the Australian government to assure the parliament and Australian public that Australia is not complicit in acts of genocide,” he said.
Palestinian activist Remah Naji, from Justice for Palestine Magan-djin, says intelligence from Pine Gap helps enable attacks in Gaza.
“I understand the genocide in Gaza against my people is made possible by intelligence flowing from the heart of this colony in Alice Springs directly to the Israeli occupation forces,” she said.
Organisers say the convergence is designed to be peaceful.
However it is also intended to send a clear message about Australia’s role in US-led wars and the ongoing denial of justice for traditional owners.
AAP