Vivienne Elanta
Encyclopedia
Vivienne Heloise Elanta was a Western Australian environmental activist.
, Elanta was the eldest of Gertraud Adler and Robert Neuman's five children. She had just six years of schooling. She moved with her family to Monrovia
, Liberia
, where her parents managed a rubber plantation
, and there was no schooling available until she was nine.
She was thirteen when they moved to Johannesburg
, South Africa
, and for eight years, from the age of 15 she worked without pay on her parents' farms - including one in northern New South Wales
, where her family emigrated in 1972. She raised her daughter, in great difficulty, for the first five years as a single parent.
Vivienne Elanta did more than 20 personal development courses, and her partner John Croft, commented, "I found it amazing the way she transformed herself from being a victim and coming eventually to see her difficult childhood as something that equipped her to have special insight into the lives of people less fortunate than herself."
Elanta had a keen interest in environmental causes and discovered the deep ecology
work of Joanna Macy
and John Seed
, which gives priority to the biosphere in the use of resources. "She didn't feel she had a purpose until she discovered deep ecology. Her purpose then was to make people aware of our part in something much older and deeper than themselves".
of Australia, which was inspired by the Gaia hypothesis
of James Lovelock
and Lynn Margulis
, and this became Elanta's vehicle for non violent activism. Its goals were personal growth, strengthening the community
and service to the Earth. It has now more than 100 members and has conducted over 600 projects.
Elanta initiated a program that reintroduced to Victoria Park
, a suburb of Perth
, Western Australia
, two species of frog that had not been recorded there for 50 years, and ran a street verge revegetation
project. She also became involved in direct action, running workshops to train fellow activists and joining forest protest camps in the south west region, as a part of the campaign to prevent the clearfelling of old-growth native forests
.
When the State Government decided to allow mineral mining in National Parks, she and a group of others carried out a symbolic exploration for minerals in the Bunbury offices of Cable Sands. They were arrested and charged.
In a campaign to try to stop bushland from being cleared at Hepburn Heights, in Perth's northern
suburbs, she dressed as a kangaroo to attract media attention and squatted in a tree platform. She was also scooped up and thrown to the ground by a bulldozer, which she then climbed on while it was in motion. She was part of a group that was arrested and charged after lying down in front of a train to stop it being loaded with woodchips, in Manjimup
.
"Her family had seen trains carrying Jews to the gas ovens, but had done nothing about it. Vivienne said at the time that she couldn't stand by and see the trains loaded with woodchips destroying the external lungs of the planet in the name of so-called progress"
In 1985, Elanta was involved in helping establish the Greens Western Australia
, in the western and northern suburbs. She also stood for the State Legislative Assembly Seat of Marmion
in 1993. Following Elanta's death, Greens MLC Chrissy Sharp
paid tribute to her in the Western Australian Legislative Council
. She said,
One of Elanta's biggest undertakings was helping to organise the Pilgrimage Project in 1997. Thirty people, including two from Chernobyl
, scene of the 1986 nuclear disaster, travelled by bus around Australia to draw attention to Australia's role in the nuclear industry
. In the ABC
program, "The Spirit of Things", just after the S11
tragedy, Elanta said "55-day pilgrimage on a bus visiting Aboriginal communities who are custodians of the particular lands on which uranium mines are, or are pegged for uranium mining, and our work there was very much of a spiritual nature as well as a political, to bring both together, that the land is sacred, and that this is as much a spiritual as a political issue. And so we brought all that knowledge from the Aboriginal elders back to Canberra, where our sisters shared that with the politicians, that it is important to leave the uranium in the ground, that land is sacred and we need to honour that.".
degree course (which she helped establish) in "Gaia philosophy and environmental ethics". That year she won the Vice Chancellor's Award for Academic Excellence.
From her deathbed, Elanta suggested that cancer is a breakdown in the communication between the cancerous tissue and the body of the person carrying the illness. It draws attention to the similarity between cancer and our present condition, and suggests that cancers "come as messengers, to come home to our bodies and come home to the Earth".
In the adjournment speech of the Western Australian Parliament, Dr Christine Sharpe quoted one of Elanta's poems and added, "Members can see that this was a remarkable and wise woman whom we will all miss greatly."
About 250 friends and relatives celebrated her life at a funeral service in Kings Park, Western Australia
where a rainbow coloured bracelet was given to everyone. Part of the blessing was; "Wear it constantly and use it as a catalyst for personal activism in your daily life. May you draw strength and inspiration from her outrageous courage, passion and love of the Earth and all her creatures, human and more than human".
To honour her memory as "an enthusiastic and excellent student" who designed her own degree in environmental ethics, and because "her example continues to inspire and enlighten. In memory of Elanta the ISTP has set up a new award for academic and environmental excellence called The Vivienne Elanta Yummy Book Fund." This award started in 2005.
There is a street name been proposed to honour Vivienne in the Canberra suburb of Wright.
Personal life
Born in GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Elanta was the eldest of Gertraud Adler and Robert Neuman's five children. She had just six years of schooling. She moved with her family to Monrovia
Monrovia
Monrovia is the capital city of the West African nation of Liberia. Located on the Atlantic Coast at Cape Mesurado, it lies geographically within Montserrado County, but is administered separately...
, Liberia
Liberia
Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...
, where her parents managed a rubber plantation
Plantation
A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...
, and there was no schooling available until she was nine.
She was thirteen when they moved to Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, and for eight years, from the age of 15 she worked without pay on her parents' farms - including one in northern New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, where her family emigrated in 1972. She raised her daughter, in great difficulty, for the first five years as a single parent.
Vivienne Elanta did more than 20 personal development courses, and her partner John Croft, commented, "I found it amazing the way she transformed herself from being a victim and coming eventually to see her difficult childhood as something that equipped her to have special insight into the lives of people less fortunate than herself."
Elanta had a keen interest in environmental causes and discovered the deep ecology
Deep ecology
Deep ecology is a contemporary ecological philosophy that recognizes an inherent worth of all living beings, regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs. The philosophy emphasizes the interdependence of organisms within ecosystems and that of ecosystems with each other within the...
work of Joanna Macy
Joanna Macy
Joanna Rogers Macy, Ph.D , is an environmental activist, author, scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology.-Biography:...
and John Seed
John Seed
John Seed is an Australian environmentalist and director of the Rainforest Information Centre which successfully campaigned to save the sub-tropical rainforests of New South Wales. He is also a prominent figure in the deep ecology movement and co-creator of the Council of All Beings, and other...
, which gives priority to the biosphere in the use of resources. "She didn't feel she had a purpose until she discovered deep ecology. Her purpose then was to make people aware of our part in something much older and deeper than themselves".
Activism
In 1986 with her partner John Croft she co-founded the Gaia FoundationGaia Movement
The Gaia Movement is an international network of individuals and groups that share a concern for living more sustainably on the earth. The term "Gaia" comes from Greek mythology, where it is the name of the Goddess of the Earth...
of Australia, which was inspired by the Gaia hypothesis
Gaia hypothesis
The Gaia hypothesis, also known as Gaia theory or Gaia principle, proposes that all organisms and their inorganic surroundings on Earth are closely integrated to form a single and self-regulating complex system, maintaining the conditions for life on the planet.The scientific investigation of the...
of James Lovelock
James Lovelock
James Lovelock, CH, CBE, FRS is an independent scientist, environmentalist and futurologist who lives in Devon, England. He is best known for proposing the Gaia hypothesis, which postulates that the biosphere is a self-regulating entity with the capacity to keep our planet healthy by controlling...
and Lynn Margulis
Lynn Margulis
Lynn Margulis was an American biologist and University Professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is best known for her theory on the origin of eukaryotic organelles, and her contributions to the endosymbiotic theory, which is now generally accepted...
, and this became Elanta's vehicle for non violent activism. Its goals were personal growth, strengthening the community
Community development
Community development is a broad term applied to the practices and academic disciplines of civic leaders, activists, involved citizens and professionals to improve various aspects of local communities....
and service to the Earth. It has now more than 100 members and has conducted over 600 projects.
Elanta initiated a program that reintroduced to Victoria Park
Victoria Park, Western Australia
The Town of Victoria Park is a Local Government Area of Western Australia. It covers an area of 17.62 km² in metropolitan Perth, the capital of Western Australia. The Town of Victoria Park maintains 154.55 km of roads, a little over 1 km² of parks and gardens and has a...
, a suburb of Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
, Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
, two species of frog that had not been recorded there for 50 years, and ran a street verge revegetation
Revegetation
Revegetation is the process of replanting and rebuilding the soil of disturbed land. This may be a natural process produced by plant colonization and succession, or an artificial , accelerated process designed to repair damage to a landscape due to wildfire, mining, flood, or other cause...
project. She also became involved in direct action, running workshops to train fellow activists and joining forest protest camps in the south west region, as a part of the campaign to prevent the clearfelling of old-growth native forests
Campaign to Save Native Forests
The Campaign to Save Native Forests was the name of a grassroots organisation which grew from a campaign started in Perth, Western Australia, in 1975, as a response to the development of a woodchipping industry in the south-west Jarrah and Karri forests of Western Australia...
.
When the State Government decided to allow mineral mining in National Parks, she and a group of others carried out a symbolic exploration for minerals in the Bunbury offices of Cable Sands. They were arrested and charged.
In a campaign to try to stop bushland from being cleared at Hepburn Heights, in Perth's northern
suburbs, she dressed as a kangaroo to attract media attention and squatted in a tree platform. She was also scooped up and thrown to the ground by a bulldozer, which she then climbed on while it was in motion. She was part of a group that was arrested and charged after lying down in front of a train to stop it being loaded with woodchips, in Manjimup
Manjimup, Western Australia
Manjimup is a town in Western Australia, south of the state capital, Perth. The town of Manjimup is a regional centre for the largest shire in the South West of Western Australia. At the 2006 census, Manjimup had a population of 4,239.-History:...
.
"Her family had seen trains carrying Jews to the gas ovens, but had done nothing about it. Vivienne said at the time that she couldn't stand by and see the trains loaded with woodchips destroying the external lungs of the planet in the name of so-called progress"
In 1985, Elanta was involved in helping establish the Greens Western Australia
Greens Western Australia
The Greens Western Australia is the state branch of the Australian Greens in Western Australia. The Greens WA was formed following the merger of the WA Greens and the Green Earth Alliance...
, in the western and northern suburbs. She also stood for the State Legislative Assembly Seat of Marmion
Marmion, Western Australia
Marmion is a northern coastal suburb of Perth, the capital city of Western Australia. Its Local Government Area is the City of Joondalup.-History:...
in 1993. Following Elanta's death, Greens MLC Chrissy Sharp
Chrissy Sharp
-Early life:Born in London, Sharp completed a Bachelor of Arts with Honours at the University of Sheffield, and a Master of Arts at the University of Kent...
paid tribute to her in the Western Australian Legislative Council
Western Australian Legislative Council
The Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of parliament in the Australian state of Western Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the Legislative Assembly. It sits in Parliament House in the state...
. She said,
"The way Vivienne lived her life touched and inspired many people. She had an absolute feeling for mother earth. She had a most extraordinary garden that was abundant in vegetables, flowers and frogs. Everything that she touched grew. In fact, the first time that I met Vivienne was about 20 years ago when she visited my farm with a famous Australian forest activist by the name of John SeedJohn SeedJohn Seed is an Australian environmentalist and director of the Rainforest Information Centre which successfully campaigned to save the sub-tropical rainforests of New South Wales. He is also a prominent figure in the deep ecology movement and co-creator of the Council of All Beings, and other...
who was travelling around the State giving a series of meetings. While the meeting was taking place at my farm, Vivienne was out in my garden, tending it for me. That is just one example of the sort of person that she was and how she was constantly living with an awareness of the needs of the people around her and of the earth around her."
One of Elanta's biggest undertakings was helping to organise the Pilgrimage Project in 1997. Thirty people, including two from Chernobyl
Chernobyl
Chernobyl or Chornobyl is an abandoned city in northern Ukraine, in Kiev Oblast, near the border with Belarus. The city had been the administrative centre of the Chernobyl Raion since 1932....
, scene of the 1986 nuclear disaster, travelled by bus around Australia to draw attention to Australia's role in the nuclear industry
Nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...
. In the ABC
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
program, "The Spirit of Things", just after the S11
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
tragedy, Elanta said "55-day pilgrimage on a bus visiting Aboriginal communities who are custodians of the particular lands on which uranium mines are, or are pegged for uranium mining, and our work there was very much of a spiritual nature as well as a political, to bring both together, that the land is sacred, and that this is as much a spiritual as a political issue. And so we brought all that knowledge from the Aboriginal elders back to Canberra, where our sisters shared that with the politicians, that it is important to leave the uranium in the ground, that land is sacred and we need to honour that.".
Death
At the time of her death, on the 16 August 2004 she was doing a Murdoch UniversityMurdoch University
Murdoch University is a public university based in Perth, Australia. It began operations as the state's second university in 1973, and accepted its first students in 1975...
degree course (which she helped establish) in "Gaia philosophy and environmental ethics". That year she won the Vice Chancellor's Award for Academic Excellence.
From her deathbed, Elanta suggested that cancer is a breakdown in the communication between the cancerous tissue and the body of the person carrying the illness. It draws attention to the similarity between cancer and our present condition, and suggests that cancers "come as messengers, to come home to our bodies and come home to the Earth".
In the adjournment speech of the Western Australian Parliament, Dr Christine Sharpe quoted one of Elanta's poems and added, "Members can see that this was a remarkable and wise woman whom we will all miss greatly."
About 250 friends and relatives celebrated her life at a funeral service in Kings Park, Western Australia
Kings Park, Western Australia
Kings Park is a park located on the western edge of Perth, Western Australia central business district. The park is a mixture of grassed parkland, botanical gardens and natural bushland on Mount Eliza with two thirds of the grounds conserved as native bushland. With panoramic views of the Swan...
where a rainbow coloured bracelet was given to everyone. Part of the blessing was; "Wear it constantly and use it as a catalyst for personal activism in your daily life. May you draw strength and inspiration from her outrageous courage, passion and love of the Earth and all her creatures, human and more than human".
To honour her memory as "an enthusiastic and excellent student" who designed her own degree in environmental ethics, and because "her example continues to inspire and enlighten. In memory of Elanta the ISTP has set up a new award for academic and environmental excellence called The Vivienne Elanta Yummy Book Fund." This award started in 2005.
There is a street name been proposed to honour Vivienne in the Canberra suburb of Wright.