Mining company found guilty of desecrating Aboriginal sacred site in NT

A MINING company has been found guilty of desecrating an Aboriginal sacred site in the Northern Territory.

A MINING company has been found guilty of desecrating an Aboriginal sacred site in the Northern Territory in a landmark ruling.

Magistrate Sue Oliver found that OM (Manganese) Ltd damaged and desecrated a sacred site known in English as Two Women Sitting Down at Bootu Creek, about 170km north of Tennant Creek.

The company has been fined $150,000.

This is the first prosecution of a company in Australia for desecrating a sacred site.

The subsidiary of OM Holdings Ltd had previously admitted physically damaging the site, but Ms Oliver found that the site's sacred and spiritual significance had also been damaged.

"The defendant did not consider damage to the site as a vague and remote possibility,'' she said, adding that any claims that it had not foreseen the damage amounted to "wilful blindness''.

To the Kunapa people, the site at Bootu Creek relates to a dreaming story about a marsupial rat and a bandicoot that had a fight over bush tucker.

The blood from the creatures spilled out onto the rocks, turning them a dark red colour now associated with manganese.

Community representative Gina Smith said the site was part of a dreaming songline.

Like a railway line, each sacred site represented a different station along the way, she said.

"It's been significantly changed, which makes it much harder for Aboriginal people to recognise the dreaming,'' Ms Smith said.

"We're not likely to use it any more.''

CEO of the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority Dr Ben Scambary told the NT News that although Aboriginal custodians were greatly distressed by the site damage, they had shown great faith in the court process and had repeatedly travelled 1000km by road from Tennant Creek to attend the many hearings of the trial.

Dr Scambary said that under the NT Sacred Sites Act 1989 the site's custodians were ineligible for any compensation and fines would go directly to the Northern Territory Government.

"When a sacred site is desecrated or damaged it tears the social fabric of the affected community as the harmony of those people is inherently linked to that sacred site," he said.

"Sacred sites are important to all Australians as most of this nation's cultural integrity, historical significance and tourism appeal comes from the 50,000 years that Aboriginal people have been caring for their country, their seas and their sacred sites.

Dr Scambary said that most miners in the NT were operating in a responsible manner. He also stressed that most Aboriginal people were not 'anti-mining' but they did insist that their sacred sites be protected.

Read more at the NT News