All monies from sale of track go to Djab Wurrung Heritage Protection Embassy.

I wrote The Rings after I saw Bob Brown speak at the Melbourne Town Hall a couple of years ago. It was the same week three street trees in Brunswick were felled. First to go was the Melaleuca in Symons Park condemned by Moreland Council for having dangerous branches as long and strong as giants' arms which the local kids love to climb. The park is named after Lieutenant William Symons from the Australian Imperial Force, who fought at Lone Pine, Gallipoli. Thus a Lone Pine was planted in his honour as well as a motley assortment of about 40 other trees: thirty church pines, several Queensland Lacebarks, a few Magnolias and the remaining two Melaleucas that still stand despite also having problematic branches. Meanwhile in the Maori district, also in Brunswick, near New Day Rising Cafe my favourite Feijoa tree was also destroyed by chainsaw. Last but not least a ginormous, healthy Eucalyptus on the Park St bike path was ground to a stump by men in a cherry-picker wearing hard-hats and hi-vis wielding chainsaws. It might sound crazy but I definitely heard those trees screaming. I have always thought I must be half human/half tree to be able to hear trees scream as I do and I wondered how many more had gone down this week? Or have since? And how many more have been sprayed orange 'slated for removal' because they're growing (and have been for 800 years) just where the Victorian Government happen to want to extend a road to shave three minutes travel time off commuters journeys to Ballarat? Didn't we hit peak oil decades ago yet a highway has more right to exist than an ancient, significant structure of land? This tract of proposed extension of highway lies smack bang in Djab Wurrung country. A tract of land where a society and culture of trees stand, and their human and animal counterparts; among them the Birthing Tree and Directions Tree. To harm the trees is to harm all beings that rely on the trees for the continuation of their existence because they are in a symbiotic relationship. The trees do a lot more than simply adorn the land. They provide habitat for wildlife, transmute themselves as mediums for tools and are substrate for water storage and water-bearing. The trees are an extension of the human body and cosmology which resides in a belief that there is a circularity of existence which includes family, ancestry, song-lines and rites of passage through lifetimes. Protecting Aboriginal heritage is protecting everyone's heritage. When will politicians understand this historical moment is one where we are saying "old trees cannot and should not be reduced to wood chips or felled with chainsaw", for the simple fact that these short-sighted decisions will be the basis of whether our species and the animal species whose habitats are enmeshed in bushland and forests live or die. They cannot decide on all our behalf whether we live or die. High emotions are triggered when it comes to trees because whether we live or die WILL be a direct result of whether trees live or die. Whether on Djab Wurrung Country, whether the Huon Pine forests of Tasmania, The Amazon ALL trees are sacred but right now the spotlight is on Djab Wurrung country. This is our moment to recognise and reconcile with the one solid thing there ever has or ever will be in this country and that is LAND.

Good and thorough article about the road project here: www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-04/western-highway-work-held-up-protesters-dig-in/9934810

Elders have asked that imagery of the sacred trees not be used online and so I've asked Ash Keating to donate a picture to the project:
'North Park Proposition' (2016). Painted in Epping, Vic. The third and final project in a series of three video artworks exploring the loss of landscape on Melbourne's urban growth boundary.

More about Ash:
thedesignfiles.net/2019/05/art-ashkeating-wall-melbourne/

Soft Rubbish Music Videos: www.youtube.com/channel/UC9F6miwcV_hhO_o4tzWVfyQ