Kettle and Stony Point First Nation citizen continues fundraising efforts following Australian fires destroys home

By Colin Graf

CHIPPEWAS OF KETTLE AND STONY POINT FIRST NATION— A fundraising campaign has raised over $20,000 for the Australian family of a local woman whose farm and cultural centre has been destroyed by the bushfires that have swept parts of the country over the last few months.

Candace Scott-Moore from Kettle and Stony Point says when the fire ripped through the farm belonging to her husband Richard’s family was “the scariest time” of her life, but the aftermath has brought her hope for the future.

After the farm, on the Pacific Ocean coast south of Australia’s largest city, Sydney, was largely destroyed, Scott-Moore started a GoFundMe page to raise money for the initial cleanup of the property, before re-building can happen. With a goal of $250,000, over $16,000 has been raised on the page.

When she returned to her home community of Kettle and Stony Point in January, Scott-Moore discovered her community had further plans to help, including ticket proceeds from a roast beef dinner, along with raffles for gift baskets from local beekeepers, bake sales, toonie auctions, and a raffle for a birch and willow-wood table built by a local Elder. One Elder told Scott-Moore she could not sleep at night thinking of what they were going through and decided to take steps to help. The community dinner alone added another $5,000 to the total.

“It’s overwhelming, the amount of love and support people are giving to us,” she says.

Even complete strangers have even been reaching out and offering help and assistance.

“This has been a beautiful experience, the way people are coming together. This is restoring my faith in humanity.” E-mail money transfers can also be sent to: candace.richard2020@gmail.com.

The farm, used mostly as a retreat and cultural centre by community organizations and school groups, has many sacred sites and was home to her husband’s ancestors who lived, prayed, hunted, gathered and danced, according to Scott-Moore’s entry on the fundraising page.

The land is also home to an abundance of wildlife including kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, snakes, possums, deer and many species of birds. Because this land is a sacred place, the family devoted their energy to protecting it from over-development thus ensuring the continued prosperity of the natural ecosystems which supported all forms of wildlife.

Buildings that were destroyed include cabins that slept 160 people, the dining hall which sat 300, the house, tool shed and its contents, a chapel, meeting rooms, a gymnasium and the “mega kitchen” with a walk-in fridge and freezer and all of its industrial ovens and cookery. The family also lost multiple farm vehicles and machinery, with tires that literally melted off the tractors, according to Scott-Moore.

The cost of replacing what was lost is around $2.1 million, she estimates, with the Australian dollar being close to par with the Canadian currency at present.

Activities on the farm are largely centered on teaching cultural practices of Australia’s Indigenous people, along with land-based activities such as “bush tucker tours” showing how to eat off the land, Scott-Moore says. The property has been with her husband’s family, members of the Yuin Nation of Australia’s Indigenous people, for 30 years or more, and is in their care because of their bloodline connections to the ancestors of the area, she says.  It has been identified as having important cultural connections to ancient cave markings and “does need to be in the care of the indigenous people,” she explains.

While some government money is available for fire relief in Australia and the family is applying for grants, they don’t have property insurance, Scott-Moore says.  There was a discrepancy in their policy, and when they found out it was not valid, it was too late to renew because the fires were coming and no one would insure them, she explains.

The couple spend half of each year in Australia and the other half in Canada, and “we are very much a part of each others’ countries and communities,” she says. However, Richard will come here later this year, in May or June, because of the work that needs doing on the farm, his wife says. There is not a lot she can do on the ground, so she has returned to work on fundraising and other projects such as her work as head talent coordinator with the Indspire Awards.

In Australia, Indigenous people are upset not only about the role that climate change may be playing in the massive damage caused by the wildfires that follow on years of drought. She says they are also angry because the fires would not have been as serious if governments in her adopted country followed ancient Indigenous practices for protecting the land.

Those include setting small, limited fires, known as “cool burns” in Australia, during the cool season to burn off dead brush and help with regeneration of new growth.

“We know how and when to do it because it is done in ceremony, people stay and keep watch over the fire. You are living and breathing with the land” she says. “People are very upset. Our culture has been outlawed for so long. This is our country, we know how to live on this country, we know how to take care of it. We call it our mother. Our mother nurtures us and we need to nurture her. We’re not allowed to, so look at what’s happening; the devastation, the burning, people losing their homes and their lives. If we could just do what we’ve always done for thousands of years we wouldn‘t be seeing this right now.”

Scott-Moore’s Australian family first saw the “orange glow” of the fire coming over hills in the distance from the farm before it engulfed their world.

“People said it would never jump the river,” she remembers.

Still, embers fanned by the strong winds from the South Pacific Ocean carried the fire and the families who lived on the farm had little time to pack and leave.

“Those embers can stay lit for kilometres in that wind.”

According to Scott-Moore, there was no panic, but definitely a rush. They were not sure which direction the wind would take the fire, and had to make sure all the children of the families working on the farm were accounted for before leaving.  People had to choose what is the most important thing you need to put in a backpack.

The family’s house in the nearby town of Nowra did not burn but the fire came within 500 metres.  Neighbours worked together to prepare their homes by filing their eaves troughs with water in case burning embers landed on their roofs. The skies were darkened so badly by smoke.

During the weeks that fire threatened the area, Scott-Moore says many times highways were closed, and people who left for work in the morning might not get back that evening. Still, it was amazing to see how the community came together, she says. If roads were closed, people lined the ocean shore with boats to act as water taxis for those who were stranded.

The money she is raising will go to help with cleanup and damage assessment. Right now, it is difficult to even get on to the farm as the fire destroyed the wooden planks of the entry bridge and rendered the steel structure unsafe.

“Everything is basically rubble right now,” she says, and Richard and his people are trying to figure out the extent of the damage and what can be saved. “They’re not even sure how to dispose of materials from the gutted buildings and how to scrap the ruined machinery.”

Meanwhile, fundraising efforts will continue, with friends of the couple in Toronto planning a benefit concert for the farm, and others in the Yukon doing the same.

With all the support coming from Canada, Scott-Moore says the couple plan to make something on the farm and dedicate it to the Indigenous people of Canada.

“These have been really hard times. Sometimes you just want to walk away and give up for a while,” she says.

Once they realized what communities over here are doing for them, it just ignited their spirits.

“Richard and I really want to honour that somehow.”

They may be able to dedicate one building on their property to the First Nations in Canada eventually.

“And of course there’s always an open invitation to anyone [from Canada] who wants to come and visit,” she adds.