A new documentary screening at Leura’s Fairmont Resort this week has pushed to save one of Australia’s most culturally and environmentally significant wild places.
Called takayna, it was created in partnership with the Bob Brown Foundation, trailrunners and the Tasmanian Aboriginal community and is part of a larger campaign to raise awareness and gain global support in nominating takayna / Tarkine region in Tasmania as a world heritage area. The film was produced by sustainable outdoor clothing brand Patagonia.
The film is travelling to 10 locations throughout Australia.
Tarkine, in the north west region of Tasmania, is home to one of the last undisturbed tracts of ancient temperate rainforest in the world, and one of the highest concentrations of Aboriginal archaeology in the southern hemisphere.
“There is no other place like it, yet it’s still under threat from extractive industries, primarily logging and mining, and off-road vehicle damage,” a film spokeswoman said.
Country director for Patagonia Australia, Dane O’Shanassy, is excited to share this film with the general public.
“As a brand, we continuously fight for the protection of wild places in order to preserve environmental and cultural heritage values for future generations. We made this film to shed light on what is happening in takayna / Tarkine and to inspire action and save one of Australia’s most culturally and environmentally significant wild places.”
Told through the experience of a local doctor who is an avid trailrunner, the film weaves together the narratives of activists and the Aboriginal community. Trail runner and GP Nicole Anderson goes behind locked gates to view the Tarkine and questions the sustainability of the forestry industry at work there.
“Running is a marvellous tool in conservation work, it gives us the ability to cover long distances over forestry and mining roads behind locked gates ... the devastation of takayna / Tarkine needs to be exposed,” she said.
The film is being screened on Thursday May 17 at Fairmont Resort Blue Mountains, 1 Sublime Point Road, Leura from 7-9.30pm.
For tickets go to: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/trails-in-motion-katoomba-tickets-45545594098.
The movie is also screening on Friday May 18 from 2.30pm.
