The West Australian Monday July 8th 1991, p.26
PROTESTERS UNITE IN CALL TO SAVE LAND
By John Duffy
Land rights and the devastation of indigenous cultures wreacked by big
business were raised by WA Aborigines in voicing their spiritual
kinship with Sarawak's Penan people.
Swan Valley fringe dwellers representative Edna Bropho said the Penan -
like Aborigines - were fighting for the survival of their homes and
their culture.
She said the Penan and Kelabit tribes were in the grip of a losing
struggle to save the last remaining stands of virgin forest in the
Malaysian state of Sarawak.
Mrs Bropho said she had information which showed that the logging
companies had destroyed the Penan's forest homes, despite many claims
of denial.
She said a gesture of solidarity had been made last year when fringe
dwellers sent an Aboriginal flag and boomerang as a symbol of their
kinship in adversity.
On Thursday the cultural exchange turned full circle when the
Lockridge camp members were shown symbolic masks made by the forest
tribes in north Sarawak.
Mrs Bropho said there were many similarities between the determination
of Perth Aborigines, and their struggle to prevent the development of
the old Swan brewery site, and that showed by groups of 400 Penan who
were blockading logging operations at Long Ajang.
She said that a Penan headman Bengnulu Wan Malong, had said: "Let us
go straight ahead, not looking back, and without fear. If the life of
our people is bad now, what will it be for our grandchildren if we do
nothing today?"
The statement was echoed by Herbert Bropho on Thursday when he urged
the Penan people's to keep fighting for their forest homes.
"The children are the foundation of our future. We have to keep
fighting for their sake," he said.
Accompanying photograph shows Aboriginal adults and children holding
the Australian aboriginal flag - the black over red, with the yellow
sun, with two plackards; one reading "Prime Minister Dr Mahatir bin
Mohammed please protect the culture of our friends - the Penan" - the
other reading "Australia tried to commit genocide. Malaysia please
don't do the same. Protect Penan Culture".