WA: Heritage under attack

On 28 October, at Fortesque Metals Group’s (FMG) Solomon Project in the Pilbara, the Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation (YAC) discovered that FMG had desecrated an ochre quarry and destroyed part of a creek where sacred Gandi are found (stones used in initiation rituals). The WA Department of Indigenous Affairs (DIA) and the Aboriginal Cultural Materials Committee (ACMC) were informed of these sites, but no action to halt or mitigate this damage has been taken.

That such damage can occur when YAC has previously provided the DIA with information regarding these sites, is proof positive of the DIA's inability to effectively monitor or enforce the State's heritage protection regime, or stop FMG from desecrating and destroying highly significant heritage and religious sites.

The Yindjibarndi People have appealed to the Hon. Tony Burke (Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities) to use his power under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act to make an emergency declaration to stop FMG doing more irretrievable damage. “The tragedy is that every moment spent waiting for Mr Burke to act, means more destruction, more knowledge lost,” said Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation CEO, Michael Woodley.

Fresh FMG legal threats against the WA Registrar of Aboriginal Sites, Kathryn Przywolnik, and a deepening crisis surrounding protection of Yindjibarndi heritage from FMG operations, makes Federal intervention more urgent than ever.

Registrar Przywolnik recently informed FMG that its latest section 18 Notice seeking ministerial consent to impact on Yindjibarndi heritage sites is “inadequate”, legally unsafe and should be withdrawn. The Registrar’s decision expresses no confidence in the heritage reporting of FMG in the strongest of terms, and confirms the grave doubts and objections consistently expressed by the YAC.