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- 27 August 2002
Tribute to Mr Helmuth Gunter Aimann
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Speakers - Cohen Mr Ian
Business - Adjournment
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Page: 4275
The Hon. IAN COHEN [5.59 p.m.]: It is with sadness that I inform the House of the passing of Helmuth Gunter Aimann. He was found in his yard one night recently, staring at the stars with a smile on his face. There are people in life who are simply good, not because they need to be appreciated or want to be adored and not because they fear any man-made god. They are just good because life does not make any sense to them if they are not good. They know that the focus of existence is finding peace, and that no-one can truly be at peace if they are not good. Helmuth was one such person. He was always there as a source of support, always good to friends, and always had something intelligent to say and some peace to impart. For the wider community the earth shifted; he was there no more. The community was unprepared for how desolate his passing made us feel. The whole world looks different. It quivers, as though one of the rocks it was built on, one of its foundations, has crumbled like talc, and the stability of the others is suddenly in question. We are no longer who we were, because part of who we were was being Helmuth's friend
.
Helmuth was born in Haifa, Palestine, in 1943. In 1948, after the declaration of the State of Israel, his family, along with other Germans farmers who were religious dissidents, was moved to a compound. His parents were murdered by members of Haganah, a zionist organisation. In 1949 Helmuth, his brother and his sister moved to Australia from a tent camp in Cyprus. Here they lived in a refugee camp and then went to live with their Auntie Anne and her husband, Julius. At the end of the 1960s Helmuth met Helen Hannah and in 1972 their beautiful daughter, Maya, was born. They left Sydney for the peace and tranquillity of the Bulga Plateau at the head of the Manning Valley, where they put into practice their dream of an alternative lifestyle.
Helmuth was an active and inspired member of the community and the environmental movement. He was actively involved with an alternative school and a food co-operative. He was also a good friend to many and "uncle" to dozens of village children. He was described by Susie Russell, a North East Forest Alliance company-ordinator, as "a wonderful communard". In 1988 he was elected President of Wingham Forest Action and led the first anti-old growth logging and woodchipping campaign in Wingham management area forests. For many years he was a co-ordinator of the North-east Forest Alliance and was involved in the early legal endeavours to make forestry operations in this State accountable.
In 1991 he was at Chaelundi. I remember him well, chained into a concrete pipe following an earlier difficult and volatile situation. He was patient and quiet. He was anchored, at peace with himself. When I went to see how he was, he looked up at me with a cement-stained face, passively resisting the efforts to destroy an old-growth forest. We will continue Helmuth's efforts to protect our precious old-growth forests in places like Chaelundi, which is scheduled for logging later this year.
In 1993 the State sought to silence Helmuth when he was the respondent to the first SLAPP [Strategic Litigation against Public Participation] suit in New South Wales brought by the Forestry Commission against 33 forest activists. But Helmuth was not silenced. He just became more active and more committed to social justice and ecological sustainability. For almost a decade he served on the management committee of the Oxygen Farm, a private conservation reserve.
Helmuth was the convener of the Bulga Landcare Group. He formed the Manning Toxic Action Group and co-ordinated local campaigns against genetically engineered foods. In the late 1990s Helmuth showed that same generous selfless spirit that so identified him as a good man by moving to Cooma to look after Auntie Anne. She wanted to die at home so he made her wish possible in return for the wonderful life she gave him when he first came to Australia. While in Cooma, Helmuth was active in landcare and the reconciliation committee. He built bridges that are still part of the reconciliation network today.
For many years Helmuth was a member of the Taree Envirofair Committee. This year he saved the day by constructing magnificent bamboo structures to keep the crowd dry when it rained. He and his partner, Sandra Bassetti, were active in the local folk dancing group and Helmuth cut a dashing figure as he moved to the centuries old eastern European melodies. At his funeral last week more than 30 people stood to speak about his goodness. We laughed, cried, danced and sang together as we laid his body in the ground. The memory of Helmuth inspires those who knew him to never give up in our pursuit of peace, social justice and caring for the earth and all her creatures. Helmuth was father, friend, community pillar, oxygen farmer, rainbow warrior and grandfather. We love him very much.
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