Eve Jeffery
With the theme Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History, the Knitting Nannas Against Gas (KNAG) Lismore packed up their needles and yarn and headed west for the third annual Nannalution Conference held in Narrabri.
Founded in Lismore by Clare Twomey and Lindy Scott as they drove around checking gas well sites near Casino, KNAG has been knitting and sitting since 2012 and the group has now cast-on dozens of loops around the country and the world.
Each year since then the Nannas have gathered in mining hotspots and in 2017 held the event in Narrabri, home of the Santos Narrabri Gas Project.
Key speaker Sydney-based columnist and author Elizabeth Farrelly along with others including EDO Chief Executive Officer Sue Higginson, regional campaign coordinator for Lock The Gate, Jane Judd, and Gomeroi women Deb Briggs and JudyKaye Knox, kept nannas on the edge of their seats and their needles clicking and clacking at high speed.
About 80 Nannas attended the event and this year for the first time hangers on were invited to nannafy for the weekend with over 100 all together joining in Nanna hi-jinx including Kokoda veteran Bill Ryan, who at 95, has pretty much seen it all after his weekend with the girls in yellow and black.
Founder Nanna Clare says it’s important for nannas to get together once a year for knitting and a natter. ‘Because we are a disorganisation, we work as autonomous loops within the sisterhood, though we do support each other when ever it is possible.
‘The conference is where we exchange stories and ideas – this is how we get together on the ground to listens to each other, farmers and Indigenous people.’
This year JudyKaye Knox spoke to the conference about the issues of intergenerational trauma within first nation society in Australia and how this has been passed down for two centuries and how it is being played out in the youth of today.’
After the three days, Nannas had visited Pilliga spill sites and the proposed gasfield, the Ciesiolka Family Farm not all that far from Santos’s Leewood water treatment facility, the Pilliga Forest and the Siding Spring Observatory, but not until after they had a unity photo shoot series with First Nation and non-indigenous Nannas locking together in what the courts called a ‘thing’, then a Nanna span on the bridge into town over the Narrabri Creek which joins the Namoi River, in a little Nanna action for good measure.
Some of the other Nanna Loops at the conference
Vive la Nannalution.!!!
Love the theme this year…so very apt for the Knitting Nannas! You ladies are definitely making history, and in such a delightful way.
The Nannas have what our pollies don’t – morality and integrity, caring about this great nation of ours
Thank you Nannas for such commitment in educating our nation on the truth behind the effects of a lot of mining. You are the true representatives of the people.
Powerful and peaceful. Thank you.