Aboriginal forest defender Ruth Langford has pleaded not guilty to trespass in a Tasmanian court.
Ms Langford was arrested and charged with trespass after occupying the Eastern Tiers Forest Reserve near Swansea on Tasmania's east coast in January.
Following her appearance in the Hobart Magistrates Court on Monday, the Yorta Yorta and Dja Dja Wurrung woman said she was "defending the right of First Nations people and our cultural obligation to protect Country".
"I pleaded not guilty to trespass, where I was charged protecting [an] important water catchment in Snow Hill," Ms Langford said.
"It's an area where they were decimating the forests and exposing all people to the potential for catastrophic bushfire.
"I said, 'I'm not guilty of protecting the very things that we all rely on to give us life and protect us from those catastrophic bushfires'."
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Ms Langford was also arrested in similar circumstances at a native forest logging protest in southern Tasmania last month.
Her arrests come following similar arrests of Uncle Jim Everett-Puralia Meenamatta, who in January was convicted of trespass in southern Tasmania's Styx Valley and a Bradys Lake logging coupe.
Following her appearance, Ms Langford said her obligation "is to protect the waterways, is to protect us from drought and catastrophic fire…"
"And also to be really clear that there is a way forward for all of us in this continent, and that's to unite the First Nation knowledges and respect that there already is a lore in Country."
Ms Langford said she will return to court in future months to share the message of Aboriginal lore.
"I'll be coming back in June and July to share our story about how the one lore is in existence, and that one lore reminds us of our human obligation to protect and respect the very things that give us life," she said.
