Indigenous elders’ heartbreak at Fortescue mine brawl

Two Indigenous elders at the ­centre of a potentially huge compensation claim against Fortescue Metals Group have told of their distress at having their traditional lands turned into mines by the company without their permission.

Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation chief executive Michael Woodley. Picture: Colin Murty

Two Indigenous elders at the ­centre of a potentially huge compensation claim against Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Metals Group have told of their distress at having their traditional lands turned into mines by the company without their permission.

Testifying before the Federal Court on Tuesday, Yindjibarndi elders Margaret Read and Tootsie Daniel also described how Fortescue’s arrival in the Pilbara had created an ongoing feud between their people.

Their testimony was part of a long-running legal battle between Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation (YAC) and Fortescue over the ­company’s mining on land over which YAC was granted ­exclusive native title rights in 2017.

Witnesses were scheduled to start testifying in August, but the court brought forward the testimony of the pair amid concerns over the health of Ms Read, who appeared via a videolink from a Karratha hospital bed.

Ms Read told how she had tried unsuccessfully to visit the land, which is now home to Fortescue’s Solomon mining hub.

“We were stopped from going there, we were stopped from visiting our own country. We were not allowed to come face-to-face with it, FMG put a barricade,” she said.

“It made me feel so really, really horrible, really, really bad that we could not go on to our own ­country.”

Ms Read, who remains a director of YAC, told how she had made many unsuccessful attempts to reconcile with the breakaway Wirlu-Murra Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation.

Fortescue helped fund Wirlu-Murra, which splintered off YAC after the latter rejected an offer of $4m a year – a rate considered well below the industry norm – for ­access to its land. Wirlu-Murra has since once lucrative contracts at the Solomon hub.

Ms Read said all attempts to mediate with Wirlu-Murra had been unsuccessful.

“I feel devastated,” she said.

Meanwhile, Ms Daniel described the joy she felt the first time she saw the country that has since been transformed by Fortescue. “It was so beautiful, it took my breath away. We started singing … It was like the country greeted us,” she said. “It brought tears to my eyes, it was so beautiful.”

She said her old people had described how they used to go to the area to collect food. Now, she said, there was nothing there.

“It breaks my heart, that country is no more there. That beautiful land that I saw, it’s all barren ­because of mining,” she said.

She described how the Yindjibarndi had fought unsuccessfully to stop mining companies from drawing water from the area. One of the elders was so upset by his inability to protect the water that he shot himself, she said.

The formation of the Wirlu-Murra splinter group had sparked ongoing fights between families that had previously all been part of the Yindjibarndi. “They never used to fight,” she said. “When FMG come along, they fight all the time.”

Fortescue and the Yindjibarndi have been engaged in a legal battle over the land since 2007.

In 2015, evidence given to the Federal Court showed Fortescue had covertly arranged a meeting of the Yindjibarndi people aimed at removing Yindjibarndi chief executive Michael Woodley and his allies as leaders of the YAC.

While some have estimated that YAC could be entitled to hundreds of millions of dollars of compensation, Fortescue at the time of the landmark 2017 native title ruling said the decision would not affect its operations or have any material financial impact on the company.