The Directions Tree was something that was also called a Spirit Tree, a tree of huge spiritual and cultural importance to Australian Indigenous people. When a child is born, the afterbirth/placenta is taken by the child’s parents and mixed with earth and a single seed, which is then planted. The tree and the child grow up alongside each other, and the two of them are spiritually connected. Its a place where the individual can go and reconnect with themselves and the land; a place they can go to seek direction and guidance throughout their life.
After the child has grown up and grown old and eventually passed away, their tree becomes a place that their family and friends can go to connect with that person’s spirit - where later generations can go to remember and connect with their ancestor. Its a place of enormous spiritual significance to the Djapwarrung people.
The Directions Tree pictured above was one of the last - if not the last - remaining Directions Trees in Victoria. All others have been destroyed. She was somewhere between 300 to 350 years old.
She was destroyed on 26 October 2020 – against staunch opposition from the Djapwarrung community, who were not consulted at any stage in the planning process and who’s concerns and objections were ignored for over three years.
There were protectors onsite on the day of the destruction, and they were violently removed. Their campsite – which was an officially registered Embassy, and which has been their home for nearly three years – was blockaded off and destroyed, and they were not allowed to go in and get their belongings, or their wallets and ID, and any of their other important items.
Children were violently separated from parents – parents who tried to get through the police line to get to their crying children were told “you can get them later.” One protector’s arm was dislocated by police. One young man was grabbed by the hair and dragged away, even though he was not resisting arrest in any way.
It’s now been nearly a week since the Directions Tree’s destruction. Police and hired Security Guards are still blocading access to the campsites and the Embassy, despite the fact that we’ve managed to get an injunction preventing any more destruction from happening between now and November 19. The trunk and branches of the Directions Tree have been taken away by VicRoads and we dont know where she is.
Here’s an article about the destruction of the Tree and the arrest of the protectors. Note: Eastern Maar Coorporation are the Registered Aboriginal Coorpoation who greenlit this destruction and who were bought off long ago, and nothing they say should be given any weight.
There are still multiple trees that need protection. Grandfather Trees, Birthing/Grandmother Trees, scar trees, and a host of other culturally important trees and landscape that we are trying to save.
Please donate to help support protectors.
Funds will be used for food/water/shelterfor protectors, and to pay for fines issued to people who were arrested/charged for trying to protect the area, and pay for other requirements that mean that these peopls can keep protecting the sacred land and trees.
Please raise awareness of this issue – spread this post, talk about it on other platforms, etc.
Heres a link to an email form that will email various MPs and ask them to protect what’s left. Please remember to change the subject line – often, politician offices will set up rules to direct mass emails straight to the trash, but changing the subject line and/or body of the email will circumvent this. Feel free to delete the pre-filled message body and replace it with your own message instead, if you like.
Here are two petitions to protect the trees.
Genocide is still happening to Australia’s indigenous people, and its happening today. The destruction of the Directions Tree was a deliberate, targetted attack. They hoped to break us and defeat us with this destruction. They hoped that by destroying her, we would give up and let them destroy the rest of the area.
But she was a Spirit Tree, and her spirit has gone into all of us who’ve spent the last several years trying to protect her. We are not done fighting. We’ve got more to protect, and we will not yield.
The 700-900 year old Grandfather trees still need us, the Birthing Trees who have sheltered 50 generations of Djapwarrung babies still need us. They murdered the Directions Tree, but that’s just fired us up even more.
Stand with the Djabwarrung, and help us save these remaining sacred trees.
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