Larry Blight: The meaning of the Yakamia Forest for the Menang people goes back thousands of years

The Yakamia Forest has been significant for Menang people, for many thousands of years. Over those years, we have maintained our totems, whether it’s a plant or an animal, or water way. And for many of us, in some cases, our totems are going to fade off into the dreaming. They will no longer exist. Menang Noongars over 50,000 years have seen multiple changes in the landscape, but we maintained it, we looked after it, right up until the last 150, 200 years. The Yakamia Forest is under serious threat. In some sections of the forest, you can be completely surrounded by the sheoak, the quel. In places dominated by the sheoak, lots of needles will be dropping. And we know then that lots of babies have been born on that patch. There are also the moondjar tree, the Christmas tree, a Menang Pibbulmun spirit tree. By no means should that tree ever be touched or disturbed. Some in the Menang community have suggested that where there are Christmas trees, we have burials very close by. You can see people every day coming through the forest, walking the dogs, walking with children, walking alone. It is a place of medicine. Every part of the forest is good for our health. It is also critically important for wildlife. There are rare, threatened orchids. The ngawyir, the critically endangered western ringtail possum lives in a remnant population. The karda, the racehorse goanna, lives in the bush and if you are lucky on a walk you might see its little burrow. Among the rare trees are the manna wattle. It doesn’t come from Menang Boodja and we believe they were planted by another group from inland, many generations ago. Their descendants are still growing here today. I believe we have lost 65 per cent of our vegetation since settlement, which means we have only about 35 per cent remnant vegetation left. Only 30 years ago, Albany was a leafy little town. We had lots of beautiful bush around us. Now it’s all gone, cleared, clear felled, nothing left. There is still a plan to put a road right through the middle of Yakamia Forest. We cannot keep doing this. We have lost enough bush in the Albany region as it is. It’s no surprise that Albany is getting hotter and hotter, becoming more and more humid. With the hotter weather, what happens to people and animals? It’s very stressful. Larry Blight is a Menang Pibbulmun man