Alliance formed to protect indigenous heritage

Land councils and indigenous leaders want a moratorium on mining and other works that jeopardise cultural heritage sites.

Rock shelters in Juukan Gorge, in Western Australia's Pilbara region.

Australia’s most powerful land councils have joined indigenous leaders across Australia to try to force a moratorium on mining and other works that place cultural heritage sites at immediate risk.

The new alliance - which includes the Cape York Land Council, the Northern Land Council, the Kimberley Land Council, the National Native Title Council and acclaimed academic Marcia Langton - is demanding Commonwealth, state and territory governments work with it to overhaul heritage laws. It says they are balanced in favour of industry at every level.

The NSW Aboriginal Land Council, which has 25,000 members, helped form the heritage alliance of 15 organisations at a crisis meeting last week. Representatives from each group discussed the deal that allowed Rio Tinto to blast the 46.000-year-old Juukan caves in Western Australia’s iron ore region in May.

NSW Aboriginal Land Council chief executive James Christian said the WA law that allowed the destruction of such an important site was a disgrace and he did not have confidence that promised replacement laws could give traditional owners equal footing with miners.

But he said the way heritage laws worked in practice was problematic across the nation. Traditional owners got a seat at the negotiation table but not the right to say no.

“It’s time for them to understand our distress, our hurt and our concern and work with us,” Mr Christian said.

“While the Pilbara is currently hitting headlines it is only the tip of the iceberg - governments across the political spectrum over many years have barely cared enough to protect Aboriginal heritage.

“The national alliance is calling on all Australians to send a very clear message to government that enough is enough. We are calling for an urgent review of heritage legislation at Federal, state and territory level.

“We are calling for a moratorium on any works that could impact Aboriginal cultural heritage. It is really imperative that governments - Federal and state and territory - sit with us and design improvements because it will require a unified approach.

“The Commonwealth government clearly does have to stand up here and show some strong leadership ... we have to be treated as equal partners and they need to show goodwill by adopting the moratorium because in the meantime there could be further significant sites that are impacted or destroyed.”

Mr Christian said the alliance was ready to work with industry.