Walking in silent contempt-ation (part 2)

On the 21st September 2014 Here's what a few people from Darwin decided to do to mark International Day of Peace

We walked from Darwin to Wickham Point Immigration Detention Centre, (40km).
8 walked and we were joined by several others at the vigil

Walkers and friends outside the Wickham / Bladin Point Immigration Detention Centre

Trevor (The Rubbish Warrior) Jenkins walked the whole way with holes in his shoes

 It was a long walk

Me absolutely exhausted!

Some of us who walked and Ben. Eldest walker Liz... age 72!

We all made it to our destination. Not much to say having walked such a long way except. It was good.
Read more HERE on FarceBook.

Took 11 hours.

Walking in silent contempt-ation

 I'm Walking to Wickham Point!

After visiting people in Immigration Detention Centres here in Darwin over the past couple of years, and trying to advocate for people where I could, I have found that the situation for asylum seekers is now even worse than when we started!

I am frustrated, and fed up with constantly grovelling with pathetic bureaucrats and gaolers on behalf of people whose voices have been silenced!
I am tired of seeing people loose their sanity and dignity as they fall into despair, after months and even years of incarceration by this country; it's leaders indifferent to the suffering they have caused and the hearts they have poisoned!

JUSTICE!
What about justice?! 
Will the guardian of detained children (Scott Morrison) be brought to justice? I doubt it.

I have asked myself, what more can I do? What action will be effective in stopping this madness? Maybe none...?

Unable to articulate my outrage, and the sense of loss and disgrace that has been welling in me I have decided to take action through prayer and meditation.

I do this in the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi when he said:
"Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action."

I will walk in silent prayer for 40km (More like 37km actually).  From Darwin to Wickham point on Sunday 21st September - International Day of Peace.
• In solidarity with all those who have suffered while in the care of the Australian Immigration Department. (Those I have visited but could offer no practical support!)
• In defiance of the policy makers whose choices have brought misery to the innocent (and the brutality of the tools they engage to do enforce their control!)
• To Bear Witness and to remember

If you want to walk too, it's a long road and there's plenty of room. Bring messages of hope, cards letters etc... See you on the road or at the Vigil outside Bladin Point at 4:30pm!






1st Leg: Darwin to Palmerston



2nd Leg: Palmerston - Wickham Point






Walking

Stringy Barks and carparks (Yellow taxi dreaming)

A tree is a tree... and land must be put to use, They say!
I have danced cloaked in the leaves of the stringy bark
It touched my skin, entered my nostrils.
I have been amongst those trees, breathed their breath, warm sun through curved leaves,
The smell of a coarse bark after rain, crackle dry leaves on forest floor
Warmth, fire, shelter green.
The honey bees gather in stringy bark hollows,
people and animals can may rest wherever the stringy bark stands.
Cycad and spear grass take root in the spaces in between, turkey bush not far away...
Do you know the Stringy bark?
No?
Ask the black cockatoo, he loves this tree too well.
It was a sacred song where we met, and now I know when you are near and I feel when you are cut too deep.
The cry of the birds when you are lost and yes too many have been lost!
At Lyons I saw the curlews huddled together in a patch of only a few meters, until that too was taken... where are they now?
Then at Muirhead where my good friend took council in the private sanctuary of your shade, the savage destruction rolled on!
I heard the cockatoo flock come to roost in their favorite spot,
I was on the phone my friend in tears, birds circling, crying, calling.
A haunting sound.
Tears flowed so long that only the poppy could stem his grief...
As the forest fell the dust rose...
Do we really need more dust and bitumen?



Is it over? NO! The forest I ride through on my way to work is the latest patch of life to be dozed into the dust! And the 'Long Grass People' who took shelter, sitting, singing, talking, sharing fire, food, smoke, and yeh grog...?  How far do they now have to walk to take shade or shelter from the expanding apatite of this Booming northern town?

Bushland between McMillans Road and Osgood Drive (April 2014)

Stringy bark stumps and dust on block between McMillans Rd and Osgood Drive (August 2014)