Like ‘mission managers’: Aboriginal land councils slam Albanese government

Indigenous leaders say the government doesn’t listen, after environment minister Tanya Plibersek used an unknown dreaming story to stop a gold mine going ahead in Blayney.

The Albanese government has been likened to Indigenous “mission managers” who are “disregarding the voice” of Aboriginal communities at an explosive meeting of NSW land councils.

Local Aboriginal Land Councils (LALC) and state government bureaucrats gathered at a “truth telling” meeting in Orange after Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek controversially stalled a gold mine in the NSW town of Blayney.

The group are demanding Premier Chris Minns lobby the Albanese government on federal law reform that will ensure land councils are the official representatives of Indigenous communities, even on a federal level.

Their calls come after Ms Plibersek slapped a Section 10 Aboriginal heritage protection order on the site proposed for the mine, on the advice of a local Aboriginal group that is not affiliated with the land council — the legal representatives of Aboriginal people in the area.

Orange LALC chief executive Annette Steele said the meeting was “not about mining” but the process of slowly taking away the rights of land councils to speak for their communities.

“(The government is) a bit like mission managers you know … ‘we understand what you want’, and they do the exact bloody opposite.”

Ms Steele, a Wiradjuri woman, asked fellow Wiradjuri people in the group if any of them had heard of the “blue banded bee” dreaming story that Ms Plibersek used to claim the mine could not go ahead on the planned site.

Acting CEO Forster LALC Roy Ah-See said the laws which allowed Ms Plibersek to slap a section 10 heritage order on the site of the Blayney gold mine were “loose”. Picture: Jane Dempster/The Daily Telegraph.

No one at the gathering said they knew of this dreaming story.

In bombshell claims, Ms Steele said the woman leading the opposition to the mine was a former employee of the land council, who during her employment did not identify as Indigenous.

Ms Steele said at the meeting Lisa Paton had reached out to her, claiming she had spoken to the relevant elders and found the site to impede on Indigenous heritage.

But on closer inspection, Ms Steele claims, the land council found the women’s claims were false.

“When she worked for us, she didn’t identify … all of sudden now she’s an Aboriginal woman,” she said.

“She used Aboriginal cultural heritage, like Plibersek, to overturn a decision that should have been made under the environmental act,” she said.

“If those laws don’t work, change them. Do not use Aboriginal cultural heritage as a political tool to overturn decisions or use it as a strategic framework to keep the Greens on side.”

Ms Steele said Ms Plibersek’s decision to use the contested Indigenous heritage claims by a group other than the Aboriginal Land Council, empowered “any Tom, Dick and Harry” to become an Indigenous elder.

She also dismissed claims a skull found on the site was a symbol of Aboriginal significance saying any suggestions of them belonging to Indigenous people based on skull thickness were “racist”.

Orange LALC Annette Steele urged activists and governments “not to use Aboriginal culture as a political tool”. Picture: Jane Dempster/The Daily Telegraph.

Ms Steele added that Indigenous people buried their dead during the Frontier Wars, and did not leave them on the site.

“This ensures that the voice and authority of the Local Aboriginal Land Councils are respected in federal level decision making, particularly in cases concerning land that falls outside the scope of native title,” a position paper put together by the group said.

“(We want) formal recognition that the authority to act in land matters originates from the Aboriginal people of the area, as represented by the Local Aboriginal Land Council.”

Forster Local Aboriginal Land Council acting chief executive Roy Ah-See said the laws which allowed Ms Plibersek to slap a section 10 heritage order on the site of the gold mine were so “loose” he could stop a project in another town if he wanted.

“With this section 10 legislation, I can stop a development in Cherbourg (in Queensland) even though I’m Wiradjuri,” he said,

“That’s how loose this legislation is.”

The meeting subject broadened into Indigenous heritage and identity concerns, with Metro Local Aboriginal Land Council chief executive Nathan Moran saying there were people doing Welcome to Country ceremonies who have “no background, no authority, they don’t even have identity”.

He pushed back against the concept “stat dec blackfellas” saying people were claiming Indigenous heritage simply by signing a statutory declaration

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek is under fire from Indigenous leaders. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

.

Mr Moran accused the government of practising “select their own white person to be a black person” after several Indigenous speakers gave accounts of people claiming to be Indigenous custodians and leaders without any legitimate ancestry.

“You pay someone to be Aboriginal because they did an Ancestry.com search and then all of a sudden they are doing national art projects, maybe designing NBL team logos,” he said.

“We’re calling out the Commonwealth, state, local governments and private companies … stop picking your own to be us.”

NSW government bureaucrats, including Planning Secretary Kiersten Fishburn and Premier and Cabinet Secretary Simon Draper threw their weight behind the meeting, saying they were there to listen with one bureaucrat adding that “more government colleagues need to hear those voices, those words that were said this morning”.