‘Like having BBQ on war memorial’: Why Indigenous want K’gari, sacred sites restricted

Parts of K’gari - formerly Fraser Island - will be restricted to the public, joining Uluru and Mount Warning. Now an expert reveals why blocking public access is important to traditional owners.

An expert has given insight into why some land is considered sacred after the traditional name of the world’s largest sand Island was restored.

In a move that generated controversy, K’gari replaced the name Fraser Island, and some areas will be restricted to Butchulla people to practise and strengthen traditional customs.

The land parcels make up about 0.01 per cent of K’gari’s total area.

Griffith University First Peoples Health Unit director Professor James Charles said land could be considered sacred for multiple reasons.

“It could be related to dream stories of creation on that Island,” he said.

“A place you take young boys to become men, that should be a sacred site.”

Prof Charles said he believed it was time to have some discipline for the sacred areas and sites.

Kingfisher Bay on K’gari

“A lot of the dream stories are about law and culture, back then in the beginning dreaming beings said you can’t go here, you can’t go there,” he said.

“Only woman can go there for example and that’s basically the lore.”

“It’s just as strong and important as the law.”

Prof Charles said it was time as a nation for people sharing the land do acknowledge those things.

“Some places are sacred and I support that. I think people should get permission to go to those places, I do think there’s a need to start to do more of that stuff.

“A place you take young boys to become men, that should be a sacred site.

“We shouldn’t go and have a party or a BBQ on a place where young men were taken to become men.”

Butchulla dancers at the renaming ceremony. Picture: Liam Kidston

Prof Charles said it could be compared to the Shrine of Remembrance.

”It would be like if you went to Canberra and started having a BBQ on the war memorial,” he said.

“I think we probably need to consider those things.

“That’s what's been so hurtful, for a lot of Aboriginal people where they’ve had sacred sites and people come in with bulldozers.”

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the renaming was another step on the path to treaty at a ceremony on the island.

The tourism icon off the coast of Hervey Bay was named Fraser Island after Scottish woman Eliza Fraser, whose ship ran aground there in 1836.

Fraser lied about being mistreated by the Butchulla people during her short time on the island, and the narrative is considered to have directly led to the massacre and dispossession of traditional owners.