The Byron Shire Echo – Issue 38.32 – January 17, 2024

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INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO 1986 The Byron Shire Echo • Volume 38 #32 • January 17, 2024 • www.echo.net.au

It’s a BayFM boogie this Sat!

Reclaiming Australia Day as a celebration of Country Paul Bibby

DJs Dale Stephen, Andrea Jones with Stella, Balasko and Sammy KC are amped for the inaugural Boogie for BayFM fundraiser, to be held this Saturday, January 20, at the Byron Theatre from 6pm. Organisers say resident BayFM DJs will be pumping six hours of funk, deep house and electro-boogie beats until midnight. BayFM President, Ange Kent says, ‘All proceeds from this event will help update studio equipment and fund essential operations into the future’. Photo Eve Jeffery

Former Mullum hospital site Q&A Hans Lovejoy Let’s dig deeper into Council’s plans for turning the former hospital site in Mullumbimby into residential dwellings! Plans for the rezoning, including supporting infrastructure assessment documents, are now on Council’s website. Public submissions for the planning proposal are open until February 11. Close to the often-gridlocked

intersection of Azalea Street and Jubilee Avenue (near the high school, and opposite the town’s Co-op), Council proposes up to 130 dwellings across a cleared floodfree 4.4 hectare lot. Council also proposes to increase the height of buildings allowed on the site from 9 metres to 11.5 metres. Negotiations are underway with neighbouring property owners to also increase the height limit allowable on their sites.

Vale stalwart John Ogilvie reflects volunteer, Barrie on 35 years in the Peters ▶ p2 yoga biz ▶ p5

Given the proposal would likely see a transfer of a public asset to private investors, The Echo asked Council staff: ‘Will the land be retained and leased to a developer, or sold to a developer outright?’ They replied, ‘No decision regarding a development plan has been made by Council as yet’. The Echo also asked, ‘Will this planning proposal be determined by the DPE or planning panel?’ ▶ Continued on page 3

Taking care of your health and wellbeing ▶ p14

It was January 26, 2023 and Bulagahn was walking on Country. ‘I was watching as some people celebrated, some people mourned and some people felt guilt and shame, and it really affected me,’ the local Bundjalung/Minjungbal man said. ‘I got together with a few elders later, and we were talking about this day and it just made me think, “How is it possible to celebrate a day like this? I don’t want to hate. I don’t want to be traumatised…”.’ That conversation gave rise to an idea: that January 26 could be reclaimed by both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians as a Celebration of Country. That idea will be brought to life on January 26 this year at an event in Brunswick Heads. As the high tide flows beneath Aboriginal flags flying above the Brunswick River, Indigenous and non-Indigenous people will gather to share what they love about Country. There will be a welcoming ceremony at around 8am, dancing, music from different cultures, artworks, and a barbeque. A key element of the day will be an open mic session, in which all people are invited to share and reflect in whatever way feels meaningful for them about their love of this land. ‘It’s not about celebrating what happened 200-plus years ago like we did in the past, it’s about celebrating this land and what it means to each of us,’ Bulagahn said. ‘It’s about sharing the oneness

The spirited little township of Bruns ▶ p16

of spirit that comes from living on this land. We want to invite people to come together – black, white, red, yellow – to celebrate Australia for the things that we love, not the things that we hate’.

Addressing trauma ‘We understand that there’s trauma on this day for many people, and that there’s shame on this day for many people. But the thing about trauma is that eventually you have to dance with it. If you don’t it just sits there. ‘We don’t want to be stuck in the trauma, and we don’t want people to be stuck in guilt and the shame. We want to bring people together to celebrate the things which we all love about this country.’

Bruns event from 8am The gathering will take place in the park on South Beach Lane from around 8am. Everyone who wants to respectfully celebrate a mutual love of Country is welcome to attend. Bulagahn works as a local artist, and is also the co-founder of the Merriging Foundation, an outreach group that works with young men who are at risk. ‘Merriging is an Aboriginal word that means turning one whole being around, and that’s what we’re trying to do. ‘We’re trying to turn these young fellas around,’ he says. ‘We get them involved with art, with culture, we go camping, we connect with the land. ‘There’s healing in the land, in being on Country – it doesn’t matter whether you’re black or white.’

So much summertime fun ▶ p17

Sun, moon and tides chart, revisited ▶ p22


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