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ANGE:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Ange McCormack. This is 7am.

Earlier this year, climate activist Joana Partyka illegally spray painted Woodside’s logo on a painting in the art gallery of Western Australia, to call for an end of the company’s controversial Burrup Hub project.

Behind plexiglass, the artwork wasn’t harmed, but the action drew plenty of criticism, and Joana was charged, and found guilty, of criminal damage.

Her interaction with the police didn’t end there – soon, WA’s counter-terrorism unit came knocking.

Today, protestor and contributor to The Saturday Paper Joana Partyka on radical protesting and why climate activists in WA are being punished.

It’s Thursday, September 21st.

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ANGE:

Joana, in January this year, you went into the Art Gallery of Western Australia with a can of yellow spray paint. Can you talk me through what happened that day, how you prepared and what you were intending to do?

JOANA:

Yeah. So that day, it feels like a lifetime ago actually, just in terms of everything that's happened since then. But I just remember feeling very nervous. I think I was maybe a little dissociated, just running on adrenaline, running on autopilot, and mostly just afraid that I'd somehow be caught out before anything could actually happen. I walked into the art gallery with a large sketch pad which concealed a stencil of the Woodside Energy logo, and I also had a small spray can in my jacket pocket. It felt very strange walking into the gallery that day, knowing what I was going to do.

I kind of wandered around the gallery for a bit. The painting that was chosen as the target, it is Frederick McCubbin’s ‘Down on his Luck’, which is an iconic colonial era painting.

It plays a big role, I think, in WA’s identity, everybody sort of learns about it in high school. I have memories of learning about it in high school and seeing it at the art gallery.

I kept an eye on the gallery attendants who were sort of roaming around, as they do. And once the gallery attendant was out of view, I, yeah, pulled out the stencil, pulled out a spray can, and off I went.

After I spray painted the logo onto the painting, I glued my hand onto the wall of the gallery. And then another campaigner, a First Nations man, Des Blurton, who accompanied me in the protest, rolled out an Aboriginal flag on the floor in front of the painting and did an acknowledgement of country.

Audio excerpt -- Des Blurton:

“I pay my respects to my elders and my ancestors.”

JOANA:

And talked about the impact of Woodside's Burrup Hub on First Nations culture and history.

Audio excerpt -- Des Blurton:

“This painting is barely 100 years old, we have five 50,000 year old artwork that Woodside is destroying.”

JOANA:

And that was kind of it, it just happened really quickly. Yeah.

ANGE:

It sounds like a very nerve-wracking, almost like out-of-body experience where you're sort of observing yourself do this thing that you never thought you would do. Describe to me what happened after you did the action. Were you escorted from the gallery? What happened next?

JOANA:

Yeah, yeah, sure. I could see that security people were mobilising around us. The gallery had obviously contacted police and the police were on their way. So after the police turned up, I was arrested and escorted out of the building into a paddy wagon and taken to the Perth watch house. And I spent, I think maybe 5 or 6 hours in lock up. When I was released, I was charged with criminal damage and released on a surety bail. I went out onto the street and there were camera crews waiting to speak to me in the discussions that I, or in the questioning that I was taken through with some of the media pack. They had referenced comments that the Premier had made about my actions. And that was very strange, very surreal to know that something that I had done had had such a far reaching impact and that so many people had something to say about it. Yeah, I had a lot of messages from people I knew who were cheering me on. I also had a lot of messages from strangers who were expressing their desire for me to go and die and berating me for being a terrible person. So it was a mixed bag. But I was very much on a high after being released.

ANGE:

So Joanna, what made you want to take this action at the art gallery earlier this year?

JOANA:

Well, the intention of the action was to really spark a conversation and draw attention to what is happening at the Burrup Peninsula, which is known as Murujuga to traditional custodians. The plans that Woodside have for Murujuga will extend over 50 years. It will pump 6 billion tonnes of deadly CO2 into the atmosphere. It's an unconscionable decision in the context of the climate crisis. And on top of that, Murujuga is a deeply sacred place that contains the largest and oldest collection of First Nations rock art in the world.

ANGE:

And after this happened, you pled guilty for what you did. You were fined a few thousand dollars. You also had to pay the gallery some compensation. And I guess that would have seemed like the end of the action and the chapter sort of closing. But then not long after six police officers showed up at your house. Can you tell me what happened?

JOANA:

Yeah. So it was really only just a couple of weeks after my court hearing, everything was over. And then a couple of weeks later, I got a knock at the door and it was six members of WA’s counter-terror police, the state security investigation group who arrived at my apartment and placed me under arrest to execute a search warrant. The police seized my phone and my laptop. They asked me to provide my passwords. My understanding was essentially that they wanted to copy all of the contents of my devices onto their police servers. While I was still under arrest, I got to speak to my lawyer and they advised me at the time not to comply with the request to hand over my passwords. And so I took that advice. And then as a result of not providing them with my passwords, they then followed up with two data access orders, one for each device, which essentially is a court order forcing me to hand over my passwords. And I was given a week to comply with that, which I chose not to comply with. And as a result of that, I was charged for failing to obey those data access orders, which is why I'm now facing trial today.

And since that raid, I've generally felt quite uneasy and unsettled, both in my apartment and in my life generally. It's really, I think, had an impact on my mental health and the way that I move through the world.

ANGE:

After the break – do radical protests help or hinder the climate movement?

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ANGE:

Joanna, this request for you to give the police access to your data, it comes as climate protesters in WA have been facing increasing prosecution for speaking out. Can you tell me a bit about what's happening in WA and why there has been an escalation with police cracking down on protesters?

JOANA:

Yeah, I think we're seeing that crackdown in a way that we're not in other states. As a state, we've based not only the majority of our economy on fossil fuels, but our identity is built upon that industry as well. We haven't yet followed the lead of other states when it comes to the explicit anti-protest laws we've seen passed in places like New South Wales or Tasmania or South Australia most recently. But it's becoming evident a) that WA may follow suit. But b), that the authorities here don't even need those laws to crack down in a really oppressive way. And what I feel is a really undemocratic way against climate protesters.

Audio excerpt -- Reporter:

“Legislative changes would give police greater powers to search for meth and other illegal drugs at 22 port, road and rail entry points around the state, boosting their ability to tackle drug trafficking networks.”

JOANA:

We're seeing that, you know, with Disrupt Burrup Hub in particular, we are being treated as bikies. We're being investigated by the same unit of the police that investigates bikies.

Audio excerpt -- Reporter:

“Under the proposed laws, police will now be able to search vehicles at specific roads such as this one at Jandakot Airport without reasonable suspicion.”

JOANA:

And so there are fears that these search power laws could extend to climate protesters.

ANGE:

And you work for the Greens in the office of Federal Senator Jordon Steele-John, but you felt it necessary to do something quite radical in your action. Do you think mainstream politics and those in power can't actually prevent the climate crisis?

JOANA:

No. Well, actually, to the contrary, I think they're the only ones who actually can, they're just not getting the message. Or maybe more accurately, they’re not acting on the message or they're not hearing the message. I think our political system is deeply, deeply flawed, but this is the system we have and we need to work within it and we need good progressive ideas and people pushing those ideas to work within the system, but also having worked within the political system for more than five years, I'm very cognisant of the many constraints of the system, a central one of which is that our major parties are bought out by industry and therefore hamstrung from pursuing anything that doesn't directly serve industry. And as a result, I've felt the need to act outside of the system and I think that acts of dissent like the work of Disrupt Burrup Hub are critical to the health of the political system and to democracy itself.

ANGE:

This type of protest, you know, whether it's spray painting or throwing cans of soup at paintings and all of that, it is really controversial because lots of people, you know, even really pro-climate action people, they don't like this type of protest. They don't see it as being effective and they dislike the idea of damaging art. What do you say to that argument that you're not protesting in the right way?

JOANA:

Yeah, that's a common criticism that I've received, that, you know, people support the cause, but they don't support the method. That's, you know, that's their prerogative. But I think that whether someone supports the disruptive tactics of Disrupt Burrup Hub or whether they don't, you know, it's September now the art gallery action that I undertook happened in January. We are still talking about that action nine months down the track. I think that is pretty strong evidence that it is effective and the action is continuing to serve its purpose, which is to put Woodside and the Burrup Hub on the map.

Certainly spray painting Woodside's logo onto a painting is not going to, you know, result in Woodside deciding not to pursue their project. It's not going to result in the WA or Federal Government making any kind of policy change that prevents the project from going ahead. It's part of a broader campaign, that seeks to mobilise enough people to join Disrupt Burrup Hub. We get a big uptick in people signing up to our list and expressing interest in joining and being part of an action. And so that's really exciting.

I've found there's no better way to spend my time, especially when it comes to this overwhelming crisis that we face. There's no better antidote to hopelessness than action.

ANGE:

Joanna, thanks so much for your time today.

JOANA:

Yeah, thanks so much for having me.

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ANGE:

Also in the news today,

Australia has joined with 31 countries to argue that Russia should face charges at the International Court of Justice in the Hague, over its invasion of Ukraine.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia was joining the push because Russia “must be held to account for its illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine”.

And

The Victorian government has announced the first Australian levy on short-stay accommodation platforms like AirBnB

The 7.5% levy was announced by the premier, Daniel Andrews, and is expected to raise about 70 million dollars each year that will be spent annually to fund social and affordable housing.

I’m Ange McCormack, this is 7am. We’ll be back again tomorrow.

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