Eve sets the record straight

Dr Eve Fesl.

Peter Gardiner

Standing on the banks of the Noosa River, Gubbi Gubbi spokeswoman Dr Eve Fesl is one of the most substantial “ghosts” you may care to chat with about her people and the way outsiders have tried to usurp their cultural land claims.

The 79-year-old native language expert feels so strongly about the ongoing dispossession of her tribal roots, she has turned mythbuster to straighten out the records.

Earlier this week she was due to meet with a Noosa Biosphere representative to discuss alleged furphies regarding her people that she had read on the official Biosphere website.

This was after she had written to Biosphere chairman Michael Donovan to discuss the apparent misrepresentations.Eve s

She wrote: “Many articles have been written about my people the Gubbi Gubbi. The information contained therein having been obviously obtained from non-academic sources, and in some instances, the authors have let their imaginations run wild.

“For instance I have read that the Gubbi Gubbi people have all been wiped out. This is news to me and my relatives.”

Dr Fesl in reference to the Biosphere article, condemned the author of the “drivel” and pointed out the term Undahnbi is not a tribe, but the name of one of Eve’s Gubbi Gubbi forebears.

“The Federal Court records show that a group of ‘historical Aborigines’ (i.e. Aboriginal people who have moved here from their own traditional lands) under the name Undambi put in a Native Title claim for the Gubbi Gubbi area,” she said.

“This was highly criticised by the court and summarily dismissed by the judge. Yet the ‘myth’ lives on and appeared on the NBL (Noosa Biosphere Ltd) website.”

Dr Fesl told the Noosa News at Noosaville this week she had grave concerns over historical people not of this land making claims and even gaining financially in the tribal range of the Gubbi Gubbi that stretches from Petrie up to near Burrum Heads.

And she slammed the so-called Kabi Kabi or Karbi Karbi people who held out their hands for financial gain and signed off for the proposed flooding of the Mary River Valley. Dr Fesl said every Gubbi Gubbi person refused the payment.

“Our culture and history was worth more than money,” said Dr Fesl who is proud of the Gubbi Gubbi campaign to kill off the Traveston Crossing dam.

The Noosa Biosphere indigenous culture section of the website could not be assessed by the News on Wednesday, but Mr Donovan had already responded to Dr Fesl’s concerns.

Mr Donovan said the NBL were not experts on traditional peoples and the governance board had sought the best advice from its cultural sector board and others to consider her request for changes to the website.

“Thank you for your observations and commentary that has opened the door towards better understanding,” he said.