#findthemoney & save the cave
We are urging NSW Minister for Environment, Penny Sharpe, to #findthemoney
to buy the Awabakal women's Butterfly Cave from billionaire family Roche Group and preserve it in perpetuity.
to buy the Awabakal women's Butterfly Cave from billionaire family Roche Group and preserve it in perpetuity.
The Awabakal women's Butterfly Cave
The Butterfly Cave and surrounding bush land is a sacred Aboriginal women’s site used for generations by Awabakal women for cultural practices and sacred women’s business. The Butterfly Cave is part of a significant cultural landscape with tangible and intangible cultural values. An important feature of the Butterfly Cave is its privacy, which allows Aboriginal women to carry out their traditional practices and sacred women’s business free from disturbance.
The Butterfly Cave is also an important contemporary educational site. It is used as a place for educating Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal girls and women in cultural practices and allowing them to experience the cultural, spiritual and emotional connection to country. It continues to be an elemental part of Aboriginal women’s cultural wellbeing.
The Butterfly Cave is also an important contemporary educational site. It is used as a place for educating Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal girls and women in cultural practices and allowing them to experience the cultural, spiritual and emotional connection to country. It continues to be an elemental part of Aboriginal women’s cultural wellbeing.
Why are we fighting?
In 2001, Roche Group lodged an application with Lake Macquarie City Council to develop land at West Wallsend. This development is known as the Appletree Grove Estate. It comprises nine stages. Six stages have been completed. Stage 7 and Stage 9 of the proposed development surround the Butterfly Cave. If allowed to proceed, these stages will desecrate the Butterfly Cave. More information about this can be found here.
Additionally, the proposed development footprint will destroy many hectares of bushland rich in resources women traditionally used and continue to use today.
Women cultural knowledge holders may only access the site with the permission of the owner’s male representative, which has been refused in the past.
Additionally, the proposed development footprint will destroy many hectares of bushland rich in resources women traditionally used and continue to use today.
Women cultural knowledge holders may only access the site with the permission of the owner’s male representative, which has been refused in the past.
What have we achieved so far?
We have been fighting to save the Butterfly Cave since 2011. As a result, the Butterfly Cave has been declared an Aboriginal Place, and a Section 10 declaration has been made under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act.
Neither piece of legislation protects the site. In fact, the provisions of both the AP and Section 10 Declaration allow for the Roche Group housing subdivision to proceed.
Neither piece of legislation protects the site. In fact, the provisions of both the AP and Section 10 Declaration allow for the Roche Group housing subdivision to proceed.
What is the solution?
Immediate action must be taken by the Minister to prevent the commencement of the construction of the Development, which if commenced, will harm or desecrate the Butterfly Cave Aboriginal Place in contravention of s 86 of the NPW Act.
Once this immediate threat has been addressed, the NSW State Government must acquire the site through negotiation or compulsory process.
The Minister for Environment and Heritage, Penny Sharpe, is empowered pursuant to section 145 of the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 (NSW) to acquire land by agreement or by compulsory process for the purpose of obtaining land for reservation under Part 4 or for preserving, protecting and preventing damage to Aboriginal objects or Aboriginal places.
Once the Butterfly Cave site is acquired by the Minister it should be immediately reserved as an Aboriginal Area by the Governor in accordance with Part 4 of the NPW Act.
Once this immediate threat has been addressed, the NSW State Government must acquire the site through negotiation or compulsory process.
The Minister for Environment and Heritage, Penny Sharpe, is empowered pursuant to section 145 of the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 (NSW) to acquire land by agreement or by compulsory process for the purpose of obtaining land for reservation under Part 4 or for preserving, protecting and preventing damage to Aboriginal objects or Aboriginal places.
Once the Butterfly Cave site is acquired by the Minister it should be immediately reserved as an Aboriginal Area by the Governor in accordance with Part 4 of the NPW Act.
What can you do to help?
Minister Penny Sharpe can save the Cave. But she says the government doesn't have the money to buy the land from Roche Group. We don't believe her. We are asking our supporters to contact Minister Sharpe and ask her to #findthemoney
Send a message to NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe asking her to #findthemoney
Send a message to land developer Roche Group and ask them to stop the development and save the Cave.
Send a message to the Federal Minister for Environment and Water, Tanya Plibersek, and ask her to enforce the Section 10 Declaration for the Butterfly Cave.
LATEST UPDATE:
Environment Minister Penny Sharpe has betrayed us
Minister can't #findthemoneyAfter being stonewalled by the former Coalition government, we strongly believed a Labor government would work with us to protect Aboriginal culture in this state.
In opposition, Minister Sharpe was extremely supportive. In 2017, she visited the Cave with women knowledge holders. She met with us again just before the 2023 State government election. She knows the site is at immediate risk of desecration. Minister Sharpe knows the only way to save this site in perpetuity is to remove it from private ownership. We have provided her with advice clearly outlining the pathway from compulsory acquistion to reservation under the National Parks and Wildlife Act. We thought Minister Penny Sharpe had our back. We were naïve. And we now feel more humiliated and hopeless than ever before. We understand she can't justify the cost of compulsory acquisition. We also understand her department hasn't even bothered to have the site valued. Minister Sharpe, your message to us is loud and clear. There's money for these parks but none for you. There's money for a Grand Cliff Top Walk. But none for you. But we feel the weight of women who have walked before us and we cannot give up the fight. We cannot be the generation who fail the generation of tomorrow. We urge you to reconsider your position. Find the money. Save the Butterfly Cave. Save our future. |
The failure the of NSW Government to adequately protect Aboriginal cultural heritage is directly contributing to the loss of Aboriginal language, stories, law and culture.
Call it out for what it is.We call it ethnocide.
Ethnocide is the destruction of culture while keeping the people. The term was first coined by Raphael Lemkin in 1944. |
Please help us. Every message helps.
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The ongoing fight to save the Awabakal Women's Butterfly Cave has been co-ordinated by Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal women working with the Sugarloaf and District Action Group.
Our fight has been sustained by the consistent support and advice from many individuals, groups and clubs.
We would particularly like to thank:
Environmental Defender's Office
Clayton Barr MP, Member for Cessnock
Our Facebook supporters
Our GoFundMe Supporters (we raised in excess of $30,000 to fund the legal campaign)
The 179,000+ people who have signed our ongoing petition on Change.org
Jennifer van Gessel
Leesa Colgan - Enough (Butterfly Cave)
Everyone who has acknowledged the significance of this precious women's site through art, tattooing, fundraising, rallying and just talking.
Our fight has been sustained by the consistent support and advice from many individuals, groups and clubs.
We would particularly like to thank:
Environmental Defender's Office
Clayton Barr MP, Member for Cessnock
Our Facebook supporters
Our GoFundMe Supporters (we raised in excess of $30,000 to fund the legal campaign)
The 179,000+ people who have signed our ongoing petition on Change.org
Jennifer van Gessel
Leesa Colgan - Enough (Butterfly Cave)
Everyone who has acknowledged the significance of this precious women's site through art, tattooing, fundraising, rallying and just talking.