Munibung Hill
Conservation Society
“I am the Lorax! I speak for the trees.
I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.”
Dr. Suess
Munibung Hill Conservation Society
We are fortunate to be working in a collaborative way with some wonderful organisations and individual people. The Society’s Five-Fold Vision for Munibung Hill is our template for advocacy and action.
It was always our belief that given half a chance people would embrace the Munibung Hill story. When we join forces and combine our efforts, it is amazing what we can achieve. Families, friends, colleagues, students, people from all walks of life and across the generations recognise the importance of green infrastructure as places like Munibung Hill are now being described. This is an exciting venture with ripple effect benefits for each of the five visions.
The Munibung Hill ‘secret’ is a secret no more.
An iconic part of ‘country’ over thousands of years, Kona-Konaba – as she was first known – is a significant site within a living culture. As high country, due to her elevation, Munibung Hill was a part of Bora or Ceremonial Ground, where initiation ceremonies would have been performed. There were also Stone Arrangements, areas where stones are placed in a certain way to form circles, semi-circles, lines and routes. The arrangements sometimes identified ceremonial grounds and tribal boundaries, as well as other sorts of ownership boundaries.
How we interpret the actions of this living culture that was far less interventionist than current social practices, speaks volumes about our respect for and standing within the larger earth community. Just as we value high places and pay high prices to buy ‘the view’, so Munibung Hill was valued but in a different way.
One of our supporters has said: “Don’t ever let the summit of Munibung Hill be the domain of a single person or family. This place needs to be kept in public ownership so we can all enjoy ‘the views’.”
And we would say, so that: we can walk where they once walked, and survey the surrounding landscape as they once surveyed the surrounding landscape.