Police raid the home of artist Joana Partyka following escalating Disrupt Burrup Hub campaign targeting Woodside and WA government
Friday 24 February 1.00PM AWST – Perth
This morning at approximately 8am AWST six counter-terrorism police officers from the State Security Investigation Unit raided the home of artist Joana Partyka and executed a search warrant.
The warrant served to Ms Partyka listed the suspected offences as Criminal damage under Section 444 of the WA Criminal Code and Conspiracy to commit an indictable offence under Section 558(1) of the WA Criminal Code.
Police officers from the State Security Investigation Unit seized a mobile phone, a laptop and a notebook used for work purposes from Ms Partyka and took photographs of other personal items at her property.
On January 19, Ms Partyka sprayed the Woodside logo in yellow paint on the colonial masterpiece ‘Down on His Luck’ at the Art Gallery of WA. The protest was subsequently endorsed by the descendants of ‘Down on His Luck’ painter Frederick McCubbin.
On February 10, Partyka pled guilty to criminal damage at court in Perth and was sentenced to pay $7500 in fines and costs, a charge labelled “absurdly excessive” by Human Rights Watch.
Ms Partyka has already paid her fine and costs in full after the funds were raised by crowdfunding within 24 hours of her sentencing.
Joana Partyka, a ceramic artist and illustrator from Perth, said of the raid:
“At about 8am this morning my home was raided by six counter-terrorism police officers from the State Security Investigation Group. This is a massive over-reach from authorities designed to intimidate us and further illustrates the complete control that Woodside and big fossil fuel polluters have over our government and police force. I have already pled guilty and been convicted for the action I took last month at the Art Gallery of WA and have already paid in full the fine and excessive costs I was charged for that action. This subsequent raid by state security counter-terror cops is baffling and unjustified and just demonstrates how desperate the government is to cover up their dependence on Woodside.”
“The Burrup Hub continues to pump out 6 billion tonnes of CO2 over 50 years and to damage and destroy sacred rock art at Murujuga. This week at Parliament another artist took a stand to show how Woodside is our government’s biggest corporate sponsor. Woodside’s logo was sprayed on WA Parliament on Tuesday the same way they splash their logo on every other cultural institution while they spray their emissions all over sacred rock art and our global climate commitments. While Woodside and the government continue to work hand in hand to wreck our world, Disrupt Burrup Hub will not be intimidated or deterred by this heavy handed authoritarianism from our government.”
The Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia is known as Murujuga to traditional custodians, a deeply sacred place that contains the largest, oldest collection of Aboriginal rock art in the world. This priceless cultural treasure is currently nominated for UNESCO world heritage listing, but the sacred songlines and stories contained in these carvings are being damaged by emissions from the Burrup Hub and face total destruction within decades.
Woodside's Burrup Hub is the biggest new fossil fuel project in Australia. It consists of the Scarborough and Browse Basin gas fields, the Pluto Project processing plant, and other linked liquified natural gas (LNG) and fertiliser plants on the Burrup Peninsula in WA’s remote north-west Pilbara region. The Burrup Hub is projected to produce more than 6 billion tons of CO2 by 2070, making it four times larger than the Adani coal mine and one of the biggest carbon bombs in the world.
On January 19, Joana Partyka, a ceramic artist and illustrator from Perth, sprayed the Woodside logo in yellow paint on the colonial masterpiece ‘Down on His Luck’ at the Art Gallery of WA. On Monday February 13, punk musician Trent Rojahn coated the Woodside building with a fire extinguisher full of high-pressure yellow paint and sprayed the slogan ‘Disrupt Burrup Hub’ across the glass at the entrance to Woodside’s corporate headquarters. On Tuesday February 21, graphic designer and mum of two Tahlia Stolarski sprayed the Woodside logo six times in yellow paint on the front doors of WA Parliament and was charged with Criminal Damage.
The Disrupt Burrup Hub campaign continues…
