Many times since the black summer fires came, and finally passed, I have thought about the enormity of what happened on vast areas of country, killing 3 billion animals and trillions of invertebrates. I thought, what can one human being say to this unimaginable loss, when I know in my heart that the human world did not do enough to prevent this disaster? A disaster brought on by the global warming emergency. A disaster that created colossal, unprecedented pyro-convective firestorms.
Do we even have the right to speak? Who should be speaking about this?
Of course, we should all speak. We should all say something of how we feel about what happened. But who should take the lead in expressing the thoughts of the entire continent? Where is the leadership of this country in this global emergency? Where are the world leaders? Where are those who have allowed the global warming disasters of unprecedented and unimaginable scale, which are now occurring with more frequency across the planet? We need the head of state to lead the nation in grieving and seeking forgiveness. To speak honestly about what a loss of this magnitude means, and what we will do to ensure it never happens again.
I feel that I need to seek the forgiveness of all these animals that died. We need to speak to the ancestral creators of this continent. Australians must recognise the magnitude and scale of what happened here. Australians must own up to their neglect in caring for country – the ancestral homelands of all those creatures who perished.
It troubles me that I am not able to find the right way to deal with the magnitude of this loss. I have seen reports that the ashes from these fires became a massive plume of smoke circling our planet for months. I have read that the fires temporarily depleted the ozone layer by up to 5%; and that ozone recovery may become slower with increasingly greater and more frequent fires. Surely this loss is a warning.
The rightful sovereign caretakers, guardians, law managers of country since time immemorial all carry the weight of this loss. We feel diminished knowing that we were unable to protect our traditional lands. Our sadness haunts country like a sickness. In 2020 the Gamilaroi scholar Amy Thunig tweeted: “Seeing people start to ask ‘what is going on in Australia?’ Ongoing colonisation, that’s what’s going on. This land was nurtured in reciprocal relationships with First Nations peoples for some 120,000+ years. THIS is the result of 200 odd years of extractive invasion.”
I am humbled and sad of heart to be writing this eulogy. Although its focus is on the animals and living creatures who died, I acknowledge the deep and tragic loss of human life in this catastrophe too. Many families and communities carry their grief and loss to this day.
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Today –
We honour, and express our sorrow for, each and every one of the 3 billion animals and all living creatures whose lives were tragically lost in the fires that burnt approximately 30,000 sq km of our country.
We honour, and are sorry for, the further loss of the smaller animals, the 240 trillion insects, beetles, butterflies, moths, spiders, yabbies and other invertebrates estimated to have died while unable to escape the fires that engulfed their rightful world, their ancient and natural homeland.
We honour, and say thank you to, the thousands of brave firefighters and community members who worked so desperately hard over soul-destroying weeks and months to save our bushlands and forests, and the lives of people and living creatures in these places.
We honour, and say thank you to, the many people who rescued badly burnt and injured animals, and painstakingly nursed and healed these animals with care and compassion before returning them to the bush.
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In the Aboriginal world, we deeply understand that all animals that belong to this land are our close relatives. We understand the importance of our close inter-connectivity with everything in our world. This is the ancient wisdom that we must follow. If we care for our country, the country will care for us.
I once wrote a libretto for Dirtsong, a musical performance by the Black Arm Band. It used the voices of elders expressing what country was all about. Their words included:
It comes from where we bin start off … Coming up from ancient song for making country good – looking good all of the time. Singing it up, singing it up, looking after it well … Watching my country, watching story … Listen for the heartbeat. The heartbeat now – with the pulse of the land, Bringing it up. … Bring the country back.
Australia, already broken by this relationship with the traditional owners of country, became more broken while witnessing the unfathomable scale of this firestorm tragedy. A tragedy that took away the fresh breath of the natural world. A tragedy that took away the sound of this country’s natural music. A tragedy that took away its peacefulness and powerful ability to calm our spirit. A tragedy that silenced the sounds of its life, like the rustle of animals moving through the bush. A tragedy that silenced the songs and voices of the vast multitude of animals, our company, our relatives, that belong in the bushlands and forests.
In this silence, we hear the voice of our conscience. We do not look after the country well enough, the land on which we live. We do not look after the health of our planet that we depend upon to survive.
We will never forget what happened, and we will never forget that 3 billion animals and the trillions of other living creatures that died through no fault of their own.
We cannot be guided by an ethos of neglect, brokenness of heart, misery of spirit that will lead us into a future world devoid of joy.
The world’s combined humanity must sing the planet up with careful songs, songs of responsibility and respect.
This is an edited version of a speech to be delivered by proxy at the Black Summer Vigil on Sunday from 2pm at Camperdown Memorial Park in Sydney, weather permitting. It will be streamed online
Alexis Wright’s new novel, Praiseworthy, is out now through Giramondo
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