Mt Warning Indigenous women’s sacred sites being ‘extinguished’ by male site claims

A controversial ban declaring Mt Warning walking track and climbing the mountain off limits to the public because of claims it is for Indigenous men only is being disputed.

The Perrottet Government has banned the public from visiting Mt Warning – including extending the bans to commercial photographs of the mountain.

A NSW government plan to ban public access – as well as impose “male only” gender restrictions – in a popular north coast national park has been criticised by female Indigenous leaders as “highly discriminatory”, saying it would “dispossess” women whose ancestors came from the area.

They say “sacred women’s” lore sites are located within the Mount Warning park, which NSW Environment Minister James Griffin declared off limits to the public last month.

Future control of the landmark Wollumbin National Park summit trek, in Mount Warning, would be given to an Aboriginal group under a new management plan, the minister said.

That’s despite more than 127,000 people hiking the iconic summit every year, which is the first place in mainland Australia to receive the sun’s rays in the morning.

The new plan says “the whole of Wollumbin Mountain is a men’s site and therefore gender restrictions apply to working on or visiting the Wollumbin Mountain”.

Ngarakbal Githabul women say there is sacred women's lore sites, specific to the Seven Sisters Wiangaree Tcherung Dreaming, located within the Declared Aboriginal Place area on the step ledge on the northern face of Mt Warning.

The Indigenous group to be given control of the Mount Warning site come from the Bunjalung nations – but local Ngarakbal Githabul women say this is discriminatory and incorrect.

North coast Indigenous woman Stella Wheildon, who has extensively researched the history of Indigenous people in the area, said the contested national park in fact contained female sacred sites and the Yoocum Yoocum ancestors, and the Ngarakbal Githabul people were the original people from the area.

“A group of men appears to be extinguishing the ancestral women’s lore by claiming everything in Mount Warning National Park is exclusively male and Bundjalung,” she said. “The Wollumbin Consultative Group has discriminated against the women and our lores.”

Environment Minister James Griffin has banned the general public from visiting the iconic Mount Warning National Park. Picture: NCA NewsWire

She said they had sought to cancel the female Grandmother Rainbow Serpent and Seven Sisters lore traditions of the “moiety”, or social group.

Elder Elizabeth Davis Boyd hit out at the government’s plans, saying she would not even be allowed to visit her own mother’s memorial in the park if they are enacted.

Ms Boyd is the authorised representative of the Ngarakbal Githabul women. Her late mother, Marlene Boyd, was recognised as the “Keeper of the Seven Sisters Creation Site” of which Mount Warning is one – and in fact has a memorial dedicated to her on the park’s Lyrebird Track.

NSW North coast woman Elizabeth Davis Boyd, an authorised representative of the Ngarakbal Githabul women, would not be allowed to visit the park despite the fact her mother’s memorial is located within it, and it contains women’s sacred sites. Picture: Debbie Mundy.

“The state government’s administrative decision to permanently close Mount Warning not only contravenes my customary law rights and women’s rights and human rights – but also my cultural responsibilities,” she said.

Mr Griffin referred questions about the discrimation claim to the department.

A National Parks and Wildlife Service spokeswoman said Aboriginal custodians would make decisions about the future of the summit walking track, adding the the Wollumbin Consultative Group was intended to include all Aboriginal people with cultural connections to the area.