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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-09-24 Daily Xml
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GOODALL, DR JANE

Ms SIMMONS (Morialta) (17:12): I rise today to inform the house of the upcoming visit to Adelaide of Dame Dr Jane Goodall PhD, DBE, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, primatologist, ethnologist and UN Messenger of Peace. Jane is best known for her 45-year study of chimpanzee social and family interactions in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania, and she is considered the world's foremost authority on chimpanzees and the most significant forerunner in the substantial changes in zoos around the world in the last 30 years. She first became involved with the inappropriate way in which chimpanzees, gorillas and orang-utans were maintained in 1959, when working with Ramona and Desmond Morris at London Zoo. She vowed that she would do all she could to improve the plight of animals in zoos.

In 1960, she was invited by Dr Louis Leakey, a famous anthropologist, to study the chimpanzees of the Gombe Stream National Park. Although unheard for a woman to venture into the wilds of the African forest, the trip would prove more successful than anyone had imagined. Jane was instrumental in the study of social learning, primate cognition, thinking and culture in wild chimpanzees. Her major breakthrough in the field was the discovery of toolmaking abilities among these primates. Although other scientists at the time had clearly observed animals using tools, it was thought that only humans made tools. This skill was considered the defining difference between humans and other animals. This discovery convinced many scientists to reconsider their definition of being human.

Living with the chimps in their own environment and gaining their confidence yielded even more surprising insights, such as the unsettling discovery that chimps engage in a primitive form of brutal warfare and bizarre courtship patterns, where males force females into consortship in remote spots for days or even months. She and her staff also observed an adolescent called 'Spindle' adopt a three year old orphan 'Mel', even though the orphan was not a close relative. Her mentor, Louis Leakey then said, 'Now we must redefine the word "tool", redefine man, or accept chimpanzees as humans.'

The international support of the Gombe research project and Jane's acceptance as a global leader in her field enabled her to establish the Jane Goodall Institute, whose aim is to advance the power of individuals to take informed and compassionate action to improve the environment for all living things. The institute is widely recognised for establishing innovative community-centred conservation and development programs throughout Africa.

Jane has also worked hard to improve not only the habitat of primates in zoos but also to give them an environment where these large brained animals are provided with mental stimulation, to use their toolmaking and using skills, and to try to alleviate some of the crippling boredom experienced by these beautiful animals prior to her intervention. It is also through Jane's initial work that chimps at zoos in the UK and America were provided with proper outdoor platforms, so they could get off their cold concrete floors, and also a cover on the outside cage to provide shade in the heat of summer.

I would also recommend to members that, if they have not done so recently, they should visit the wonderful primate enclosures of the Adelaide Zoo, and especially take the opportunity to visit one of our own orang-utans, Pusung, who is provided with amazing enrichment activities by his keepers.

I have been very privileged to watch Pusung break off a twig from a branch, chew it until it resembles a brush and push it into a pipe so that he can collect the honey he loves so much onto the brush end of his twig. The honey would not stick to the twig without it being chewed into the brush shape. This is an amazing and life-changing experience. Not all of us can visit these amazing animals in the wild, but we can visit them behind the scenes in our own Adelaide Zoo to try to understand better their character and their vivid personalities.

The Jane Goodall Institute is also responsible for the Roots and Shoots program which I have spoken about previously in this place. The program, aimed at school age children and youth, is now widely recognised in 96 countries, including Australia, with 8,000 schools involved, and several South Australian schools now host the program.

Roots and Shoots encourages children to roll up their sleeves and design projects to help make the world a better place for animals, people and the environment. I was very lucky to visit the Marree Aboriginal school in the Far North of our state and to see the success of the Roots and Shoots program at that particular school. I believe that the methodology of teaching children of indigenous descent through this program is extremely valuable, because it is very similar to the way their elders use to teach them about their own heritage.

It has been very successful in that particular community, I must say, and that is probably almost entirely due to the work of Campbell Whalley (now retired), an amazing teacher who is able to really engage with children and to get them occupied through this Roots and Shoots program, ably assisted, I must say, by an Aboriginal elder of that area, Reg Dodd. The two of them working together really got behind Roots and Shoots and made it work for these kids.

I believe that we are very privileged to have Jane in South Australia and congratulate Chris West, the CEO of South Australian Zoos, and his staff on coordinating her visit. Jane arrives on 4 October, World Animal Day, which is very appropriate. I encourage all members here, and the South Australian public, to try to see her, either at the special Monarto family day on Sunday 5 October, hear her speak at a public lecture at the Adelaide Town Hall on 6 October (her talk will be entitled, 'Hope for nature'), or at a fantastic networking opportunity lunch on Tuesday 7 October at the National Wine Centre. This luncheon will be entitled, 'The woman who redefined man redefines leadership'. It is especially targeted at the corporate boardroom, and probably at politicians, too.

Dr Goodall will use some of the examples that she has collected over her 45 years of studies, in which she redefined man, take that into the boardroom and talk about some of the leadership qualities that she has observed in the colonies and communities that she has been working with. It should be very stimulating. If people want tickets, they can get them from www.fullystocked.com.

Motion carried.


At 17:20 the house adjourned until Thursday 25 September 2008 at 10:30.


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