WA local government elections

 

In Albany, the ballot slips are in the mail.

Here are the choices.

For those of you who have never done this before, or have forgotten how to do it, here are some basic instructions.

The Mayor

There are seven candidates.

You may put 1 in the box of the mayor you want and leave the rest.

Or you could put 2, then all the way down to 7. Or any other variation.

My preference, and I always do this, even when there are 167 listed for the Senate, is to number every single box, that way your vote will count. If you only place a 1, and your preference gets tossed out in the cut, then your vote is lost, but if you fill out all the boxes, then your vote, eventually, will be counted.

The councillors

There are eleven candidates.

You may put 1 in the box of the councillor you want and leave the rest. But because there are four vacancies, you might put 1 2 3 4. Then leave the rest.

But, let me repeat myself again, again ....

My preference, and I always do this, even when there are 283 listed for the Senate, is to number every single box, that way all your votes will count. If you only place a 1, and your preference gets tossed out in the cut, then your vote is lost, but if you fill out all the boxes, all the way down to 11, then you increase your chances of getting someone in you would rather get in.

Go on, ask.

"Is that you, Jon, listed among the candidates?"

Yes.

"So...?"

I would never ask someone, anyone, to vote for me. I have an internet presence. I am easily found. If you look at me, then look at the makeup of the City Council, simply ask yourself if there is anyone else like me sitting in those comfy chairs?

Ask also, why isn't there a Menang Noongar on Council?

Or as mayor?

One more question, Albany was well served in the past with women mayors, maybe it's time for another one, and one with a particular skill set.

Written and authorised by Jon Doust, 132 Angove Road, Spencer Park, Kincinnup Kinjarling, Albany, 6330, Menang Noongar Boodja.

  

Speaking with trees

 

I had a dream in which a young man asked me if I had “done enough”?

The question saddened me deeply, depressed me, and I was forced to ask what had I done?

When I woke up, the dream stayed on. Lists were forming. Driving me awake. I had to grab paper and pencil.

The first list was short and apart from the obvious, like joining environmental groups, planting native trees and shrubs, pulling invasive species from native forest areas, picking up rubbish and talking to the unconvinced, not much.

A bigger list came to me, full of things I had not done.

But first, there was another question: Why can’t most people hear the trees crying?

I knew the origins of it. On a long drive south to Kinjarling (Albany) from Walyalup (Fremantle), I listened to an interview with Veronique Tadjo who wrote a novel - In the Company of Men - from a novel perspective: Tadjo gives voices to creatures that inhabit West Africa and, in particular, to an ancient tree.

Between 2014 and 2016, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone suffered the world’s worst Ebola outbreak. Tadjo’s novel covers the events in brutal detail. In the Company of Men has not yet been released but after listening to her interview and reading early reviews, it is obvious that a major thread in the work is that viruses like Ebola and humans have much in common – both cannot stop their inner drives. They live of their hosts, and at the same time they destroy them.

She wanted a voice that knew humans longer than humans had known humans, and it makes sense when you remember that what is left of the Australian bush is packed with trees, like Huon Pines and Balgas, that have been around longer than the colonials and those who followed.

And so I thought of the trees I loved, and tried to find their voices.

And that was when one of them asked: Can’t you hear us crying?

            Don’t you know we are sick?

            Of the loss of habitat.

            The loss of family.

            The loss of the insects that feed of us and give life to others at the                     same time.

            Of the decline in bird numbers, even those that you all think are                        forever birds, like the koorlbardi, the djitty djitty, the karrak.

            Of invasive species of all types.

            Especially you people.

            More and more often with machines.

            And every year with incendiary devices to set of wildfires that burn us             on-mass, to cinders.

            And you, people, you have forgotten that time before when you                           looked to us, for shelter, for food, and you prayed to our spirit.

Now we are nothing to you, just another thing, like plastic, like curios. And one day soon you will house us like all your curios, behind high walls, with gates, and you will sell tickets to the curious.

          But then it will be too late and, like the Ebola virus, you will have                       destroyed everything that sustains you.

And now, here is another list, for further reading.

In the Company of Men

https://www.amazon.com.au/Company-Men-V%C3%A9ronique-Tadjo/dp/1635420954

Gum: The story of eucalypts & their champions

https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/gum-131849/

The Heartbeat of Trees

https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/heartbeat-trees

The Hidden Life of Trees

https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/hidden-life-trees

Jones Doust York

The York Writers Festival is a weekend chock full of author-to-author conversations featuring some of WA's best-loved writers and poets. Full program includes kids' activities, short story competition and a murder mystery dinner in York's historic Town Hall.

SUNDAY 19 MARCH - MC is Will Yeoman
45 minute sessions, with 15 minute break in between
Speakeasy venue (back of Gallery 152)

9:30 David Whish-Wilson & Sharron Booth

10:30 Maria Papas & Brooke Dunnell

11:30 Will Yeoman & Ian Hooper: Publishing Avenues

12:30 Josephine Taylor & Holden Sheppard

2:00 Jon Doust & Portland Jones

3:00 Michael Levitt & Brett Adams

4:00 Special Event: Stephen Scourfield & Will Yeoman (includes spoken word & guitar performance)