Our environmental achiever

NT Young Achievers Environment Award winner Alice Eather from Maningrida.  

A COMMITTED environmental campaigner from West Arnhem has won the 2014 ConocoPhillips Environment Award at this year’s Young Achiever Awards in Darwin. Alice Eather received her award at a Gala Presentation Dinner at Skycity on Saturday 5 April. Ms Eather, a young indigenous Traditional Owner from Maningrida, is a teacher, campaign leader, and environmental advocate.

As a leader within the Protect Arnhem Land campaign, she is fighting to protect Arnhem Land against oil and gas exploration, talking with elders and young people and raising social awareness about the effects of proposed seabed mining. Ms Eather designed pamphlets outlining information on mining and has promoted the Protect Arnhem Land campaign through a variety of social media outlets with the hope to encourage others to join the fight. Major Prize Patron, TIO, presented Ms Eather with $2000 prize money and the Environmental Award trophy.   

Speaking after her award Ms Eather said the Protect Arnhem Land group had come a long way. “We started to protect Arnhem Land two years ago, myself and other traditional owners, to create awareness of the dangers of offshore fracking in Arnhem Land waters,” she said. “We’ve had successes including a trip to Canberra, Parliament House. We made a message stick and a bark petition. We went for a trip to Sydney to meet with the oil company and we had a protest with The Wilderness Society.”

She said there was a lot of support for the campaign within the community at Maningrida.

“We’ve had so much support from all the elders and the TOs that are there, to share their stories about the dreaming sites, the sacred sites, the songlines that are thousands of years old.”

The prize money would go back into the Protect Arnhem Land campaign, she said. “We have a small little ratty tatty group in Maningrida, the Protect Arnhem Land group, that donate their time and money and heart and passion,” Ms Eather said. “We all work full-time, but we get together to fight this.”

Alice works with both indigenous and nonindigenous communities in the region, translating scientific information into the Indigenous language, and interpreting laws around oil and gas exploration to ensure all is understood within the community. “I am going to continue to educate my community, Australia and the rest of the world to stand up and say ‘no’, no to unwanted mining companies coming in to traditional land,” she said.

Ms Eather said she was initially unaware that she had been nominated for the award. “I actually found out on Facebook!” she said. “I would like to thank the Young Achiever Awards for this honour and for giving me the opportunity to represent all the young environmentalists who are helping to sustain and create a better environment for the Northern Territory.”