Rosemary Gillespie

We come from the land that gives us life. We remember the time when the virgin earth brought forth fruits in great abundance — a natural paradise — before greed ripped our land and lives apart Now mining scars the face of the planet, leaves deep craters where once wild rivers ran Our freedom curtailed, many search for paradise lost, chasing butterflies of illusion in a cloud of confusion. Heed the warning of our cousins the Cree: Only when the last tree has died, the last river poisoned and the last fish been caught, will you realise that you cannot eat money
It is with great sadness that Green Left Weekly reports the death of human rights activist Rosemarie Waratah Gillespie, 69, who unexpectedly died in Melbourne on June 21 from a stroke. An activist for more than 40 years, she was a human rights lawyer, activist, author, filmmaker, anti-capitalist, Indigenous activist and mother. Waratah lived in Port Kembla and frequently travelled to Sydney to attend meetings at Humanist House, where she was vice president of the Humanist Society. The society was just one of her many passions.