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Grassroots campaigning shapes PhD research
Grassroots campaigning shapes PhD research,Not only did Lynette reflect deeply on the importance of place, truth and storytelling; she also left behind friends and family to move to Armidale

Grassroots campaigning shapes PhD research

Not only did Lynette reflect deeply on the importance of place, truth and storytelling; she also left behind friends and family to move to Armidale, NSW and enrol in a PhD at the University of New England.

“My PhD explores how, since colonisation, the Ngarabul people have belonged to country,” Lynette said.

“Culturally my people have lost a lot of our history due to past government practices with the Stolen Generations. There were also the massacres against the Ngarabul people on the Mole River and Bluff Rock. Ngarabul and other First-nation communities who walked the Mole River and have survived colonisation are still advocating for their homelands.”

Lynette, who has a background in social ecology, believes her homeland is a living being of which she is a part whereas a western worldview might view place as a commodity without a spirit.

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“This love of country and place was evident as grassroots campaigners came together through a shared love for the Mole River. First Nations people travelled from all over the country to attend face-to-face meetings amidst COVID restrictions. This is a testament to their love for our ancestors and homelands.”

“But the inquiry was also an eye-opener and led me to think deeply about First Nations placemaking, our responsibility to protect the land and places of significance, and the need to personally come to a place of peace about my white ancestry and their settlement.”

Lynette also attended the Goonoowigall Soundtrails at Inverell in 2019, which further emphasised the importance of First-Nation people’s stories and truth-telling of place.

“Our stories of place are a testament to our resilience and are a rebuttal to the settlers’ concepts of development. Development has a different meaning for Indigenous people who feel the value of land with its natural surface intact.”

Lynette’s campaigning against the dam was inspired by an ancestor, Mole River Jacky, who was given a reserve on the Mole River by the Aboriginal Protection Board in the 1890s. The area is also a sacred site where many Ngarabul and Gomeroi people learned cultural lessons.

“The Mole River is part of my ancestry and I plan to use the site as a case study in my research, specifically looking at ‘reactive placemaking’, including how First-nation communities reacted politically, emotionally, spiritually, and culturally to their places of significance being developed.”

During the inquiry, Lynette realised that Australia’s First Nation’s people have been reduced to stake-holders in decision-making of their homelands whereas before colonisation they were the decision-makers.

“My research will cover the Ngarabul’s resilience, epigenetic memory, history, and decision-making since European settlement, but I’m hopeful that my PhD will also help change policy so First-Nations people will have a stronger voice regarding decisions affecting their homelands.”

On 1 June 2022, Lynette and fellow Mole River Dam campaigners received good news: NSW Minister for Water Kevin Anderson had announced that the Mole River Dam project would not proceed. The decision follows community feedback, rigorous investigations and cost benefit analysis.

“It is very welcome news,” Lynette said. “First Nations people and many other local community groups are applauding this decision.”

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