This week, we're taking you back to the Northern Territory with an interview with one of the Traditional Owners who made the 4,000 KM trek from Darwin to Canberra in September. The delegation of Traditional Owners and environmentalists went to the capital to call on the Federal government to step in and halt the agricultural projects that threaten water-dependent ecosystems.
In this episode we speak to Cecilia Lake, a Mangarrayi Traditional Owner from Jilkminggan, a community of 300 people on the Roper River, east of Mataranka, where her Country is well renowned for its pristine waterholes and palm forests.
Cecilia attended the delegation in Canberra and is fighting to have her voice heard on the water issues facing her country, particularly the groundwater springs that feed the Roper River during the dry season. According to Cecilia, changes in local agricultural activity that extract groundwater for irrigation are already impacting her sacred springs, threatening the future of her Country and her community.