Department of Animals

10/04/2023

When we learn about pivotal moments in history, we imagine how we might have been one of the good guys. Part of the resistance, the rebellion, one of the heroes. “If I was alive then, I would have…”

You’re alive now. What you would have done then is whatever you’re doing now.

This week a lot of our comrades were down in Melbourne for actions leading up to the five-year anniversary Dominion march. Legends.

Dominion is one of the most important films ever made, and if you are Australian, you need to have watched it.

If you buy hen’s eggs, cow’s milk, pig’s bodies – you need to have watched it.

You are absolutely beholden to know what you are funding.

Because the industry works really hard to keep it secret from you. The industry *bends laws* to keep it secret.

Chris Delforce: “Consumers are only ever presented with happy cartoon imagery or meaningless feel-good labels like 'high welfare' and 'free range' – propaganda on a scale so massive it's become embedded in our collective subconscious…

“Dominion is about levelling the playing field by showing consumers of animal products what they're actually paying for – giving them the chance to make informed decisions…

“We believe that truth and openness are our greatest asset in the fight against commercialised animal abuse.”

Engage with the truth. Look up 'watch Dominion'.

📸 Gav Wheatley // 📸 Andrew Wallis

05/04/2023

05/04/2023

Thank you to everyone who braved heavy rain to join the Black Summer Vigil on Sunday. We remembered and honoured the billions & trillions of our non-human countrymen who died in the fires.

Thank you to the brave speakers, many of whom revisited some of the most painful memories of their lives to share with us: Alexis Wright, Jacqui Katona, Greg Mullins AO AFSM, Professor Christopher Dickman, Rae Harvey, Evan Quartermain, Professor Danielle Celermajer, Dr Howard Ralph OAM and Sonja Elwood.

Thank you to Jannawi Dance Clan for the beautiful Welcome to Country, dances and Water Healing Ceremony.

Thank you to our co-hosts Animals Australia, New South Wales Wildlife Council, World Animal Protection Australia, Humane Society International Australia, Defend the Wild and supporting organisations WIRES, National Indigenous Fire Network, Nature NSW, Wild2Free Inc. - Kangaroo Sanctuary, FOUR PAWS, Friends of the Koala Inc. and Kangaroos Alive.

Our particular gratitude to Derek Knox and Animal Rescue Cooperative, Susan Lorenzo and Vegan NSW / Sydney Vegan Market, the supportive King St community – La Petite Fauxmagerie, Sanga Vegan, MoshPit Bar, Courthouse Hotel, and further afield – Buddha Bowl Cafe, Miss Sina, Vegan Grocery Store and more.

Thank you to Andy Lysle and dplr who were cucumber cool in the face of myriad last-minute pressures and made the livestream possible, and the Newtown:Erskineville Anglican Church who gave us shelter from the rain.

This was a grassroots, indie event made possible by many people lending their skills outside of work hours across both animal rights and the arts. In particular, artist and web developer Tim Barbarino, graphic designer Louie Dodd, brains and advisors Laetitia Shepherd, Hannah Fulton, Darcy Gee, Claire King, Lucie Brumont, Nithya Nagarajan, video editor Desmond Hoo.

A huge thanks to activists Izzy Sleiman, Sarah Qian, Susan Sorensen and Rohan Laxmanalal for their help and for being inspiring.

And finally a thank you to the many animals we share these lands with. You are what make our world beautiful and interesting, we love you with a depth we don't even understand, and we will never, ever, ever stop fighting for you.

📸 Biggest love to Ashley Andrés Penin / Dream Syndicate for capturing these special moments

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.574848684749863&type=3

Thank you to everyone who braved heavy rain to join the Black Summer Vigil on Sunday. We remembered and honoured the billions & trillions of our non-human countrymen who died in the fires.

Thank you to the brave speakers, many of whom revisited some of the most painful memories of their lives to share with us: Alexis Wright, Jacqui Katona, Greg Mullins AO AFSM, Professor Christopher Dickman, Rae Harvey, Evan Quartermain, Professor Danielle Celermajer, Dr Howard Ralph OAM and Sonja Elwood.

Thank you to Jannawi Dance Clan for the beautiful Welcome to Country, dances and Water Healing Ceremony.

Thank you to our co-hosts Animals Australia, New South Wales Wildlife Council, World Animal Protection Australia, Humane Society International Australia, Defend the Wild and supporting organisations WIRES, National Indigenous Fire Network, Nature NSW, Wild2Free Inc. - Kangaroo Sanctuary, FOUR PAWS, Friends of the Koala Inc. and Kangaroos Alive.

Our particular gratitude to Derek Knox and Animal Rescue Cooperative, Susan Lorenzo and Vegan NSW / Sydney Vegan Market, the supportive King St community – La Petite Fauxmagerie, Sanga Vegan, MoshPit Bar, Courthouse Hotel, and further afield – Buddha Bowl Cafe, Miss Sina, Vegan Grocery Store and more.

Thank you to Andy Lysle and dplr who were cucumber cool in the face of myriad last-minute pressures and made the livestream possible, and the Newtown:Erskineville Anglican Church who gave us shelter from the rain.

This was a grassroots, indie event made possible by many people lending their skills outside of work hours across both animal rights and the arts. In particular, artist and web developer Tim Barbarino, graphic designer Louie Dodd, brains and advisors Laetitia Shepherd, Hannah Fulton, Darcy Gee, Claire King, Lucie Brumont, Nithya Nagarajan, video editor Desmond Hoo.

A huge thanks to activists Izzy Sleiman, Sarah Qian, Susan Sorensen and Rohan Laxmanalal for their help and for being inspiring.

And finally a thank you to the many animals we share these lands with. You are what make our world beautiful and interesting, we love you with a depth we don't even understand, and we will never, ever, ever stop fighting for you.

📸 Biggest love to Ashley Andrés Penin / Dream Syndicate for capturing these special moments

01/04/2023

Our wet weather venue is right next door to the original location. It's a beautiful hall with huge windows. We've put a map in the comments. See you at 2pm today; we will remember them 🕯🖤🐾

The Black Summer Vigil is going ahead rain or shine 🕯🖤🐾 Our wet weather venue, kindly provided by the Newtown:Erskineville Anglican Church, is *right next door* to the original venue of Camperdown Memorial Rest Park. It is a lovely space with large windows. See you there

📸 Margaret Smith

01/04/2023

Like many wildlife carers, Sonja Elwood doesn’t have many pictures of herself. She has pictures of the orphaned & injured wildlife she has given her life to helping.

Wildlife carers like Sonja nurse these precious souls back to health, raise these lonely infants who’ve just lost their adoring mother, then release them back into the bush to fulfil their lives as wild & free creatures.

She may not have many pictures of herself, but there are many little beings who do.

Right now, out there in the night, there are so many little marsupials, bats, wallabies, possums, gliders and even bandicoots who can picture Sonja so clearly they don’t need a photo – they remember her face, her voice, her love & care that she gave to them in the darkest time of their life.

We are honoured that Sonja will be speaking at the Black Summer Vigil tomorrow. We have a wet weather venue so follow the Facebook event for updates.
..

This image is from Sonja’s time working in emergency veterinary triage centres for wildlife on the South Coast during Black Summer.

01/04/2023

The Black Summer Vigil is going ahead rain or shine 🕯🖤🐾 Our wet weather venue, kindly provided by the Newtown:Erskineville Anglican Church, is *right next door* to the original venue of Camperdown Memorial Rest Park. It is a lovely space with large windows. See you there

📸 Margaret Smith

31/03/2023

The Black Summer Vigil is in The Guardian this morning, thanks to the words of multi-award-winning Waanyi writer and land rights activist Alexis Wright.

Three years after Australia’s firestorm tragedy, Alexis Wright offers a eulogy for the living creatures lost – and a plea for the humans left behind

31/03/2023

Imagine being an ecologist during the sixth mass extinction in the country with the worst rate of mammalian extinction in the world…

Introducing Professor Dickman, the scientist behind probably the biggest news story to come out of Black Summer: his estimate of one billion animals killed went viral around the world.

Sadly, this estimate was on 8 January 2020. The fires were not even halfway over.

By the end, his study put the death count at three billion. And this does not include invertebrates: an estimated 240 trillion beetles, moths, spiders, yabbies and other invertebrates died in the fires.

Professor Dickman is speaking this Sunday at the Black Summer Vigil. He will be sharing what is really happening in the natural world here in the global landclearing and mammalian extinction hotspot known as Australia – both before the fires, and since.

RSVP now ➡️ blacksummervigil.com

📸 Harriet Tatham

30/03/2023

Jimmy and his sister Katy were rescued off a factory farm floor as babies, left to die as "wastage". They found refuge with Danielle Celermajer, until Black Summer.

"On 26 December, the fire that had been slowly advancing on our place was finally near enough to pose a real threat. When I telephoned the woman who had raised Jimmy and Katy, to see if she could, once again, offer them sanctuary, she said she’d been half-expecting my call. She said she would be here the next day to take them home, four hours to the south of us, where they could be safe until our place was no longer under threat. The very idea of being 'safe', however, is one of the many casualties of the climate catastrophe."

Tragically, the fire changed and engulfed the property where Jimmy and Katy had been sent to be safe.

Katy died in the fire. Traumatised and griefstricken, Jimmy emerged from the wreckage days later, somehow alive.

At the Black Summer Vigil this Sunday, Danielle will share their story, and speak of the new crime of our age – omnicide, the killing of all.

📸 Leonard McDonald

29/03/2023

A very special part of the Black Summer Vigil this Sunday will be Jannawi Dance Clan, who will be sharing traditional animal dances of the Sydney region, as well as a healing Water Ceremony at the end. We are honoured they will be sharing Dharug stories with us in this form.

28/03/2023

Yesterday our Director Aniqa Mannan, producer of the Black Summer Vigil, and Head of Programs & Disaster Response at Humane Society International Australia Evan Quartermain, spoke to Lill Scott at FBi Radio about the Black Summer Vigil.

Evan describes the emotional impact of finding koala mothers who'd died protecting their joeys from the fire. With their mother fiercely curled around them, often the joey survived.

These are acts of heartbreaking heroism from our non-human countrymen – and they should never have had to go through this.

Listen to the interview at timestamp 2:22:45 and a huge thanks to Lill Scott for having us on.

26/03/2023

We are so grateful that National Indigenous Fire Network (Firesticks) representative Dan Morgan will be coming up for the Black Summer Vigil from Djiringanj-Yuin Country, which was devastated in the fires.

A sacred area on Dan’s Country is home to the last surviving koalas on the NSW south coast – the only koala colony remaining anywhere between Sydney and the Victorian border.

Dan practices cultural burning which is completely different to hazard reduction burns. This is the fire knowledge that Firesticks works hard to share.

“We have evolved with our Country over thousands of years, nourishing and protecting all living species… Australia needs to make legislative changes that allow us to heal Country and our community through the fire knowledge and to stop incinerating ecosystems with destructive ‘hazard-reduction’ burns.”

2pm next Sunday: Black Summer Vigil. Join us online or at Camperdown Memorial Rest Park, Sydney.

📸 Amandine Ahrens