Juukan Gorge: Rio Tinto blasting of Aboriginal site prompts calls to change antiquated laws

[Disir]

A46,000-year-old Aboriginal heritage site destroyed by Rio Tinto this month is one of more than 463 sites that mining companies operating in Western Australia have applied for permission to destroy or disturb since 2010.

None of those applications have been refused. And under the state’s 48-year-old Aboriginal heritage laws, only the land or lease holder has the right to appeal – traditional owners do not.

The figures show that the shocking destruction of the sites in the Juukan Gorge in the western Pilbara was not unique.

The conflict between mining companies and Aboriginal heritage, particularly in mineral-rich areas such as the iron ore-rich Hamersley range of the Pilbara, has spawned a system of suffocating bureaucracy and lopsided agreement-making that privileges development over protecting sacred spaces and leaves traditional owners with no legislative power, and very little institutional power, to fight back.

Juukan Gorge: Rio Tinto blasting of Aboriginal site prompts calls to change antiquated laws

Conflict between mining and Aboriginal heritage in WA has spawned a system of suffocating bureaucracy and lopsided agreement-making

www.theguardian.com

They will need to get in there and change the laws.

 

[fncceo]

I'm reminded of my time living and working in Europe. Europe and the British Isles are literally slathered with historical sights. The birthplace of some guy, the execution site of some gal, a battle where thousands perished and everyone's lives changed for a while. You can't swing your baldrick around your head without hitting a place where some famous person wasn't born, didn't die, didn't schtupp, or didn't fight.

A precious few of those sites are duly revered for their political significance. A few more might have a small plaque or sign hidden way. Most of them are underneath a highway by-pass, an old pub, or a Tesco car park.

Time marches on, leaving the events of the past, no matter how significant, to be buried under the pavement of progress.

 

[Tijn Von Ingersleben]

Oh man...an aboriginal heritage site? What was it, a gas can?

Heritage....lol!

 

[justinacolmena]

Rio Tinto is probably the largest corporation in the world, bar none. Reminds me of my hometown, talk about a "schedule set in stone" -- there was heavy traffic by the mining quarry -- truck drivers fighting with freeway traffic to leave the quarry, because space was tight, the fuses were lit, charges timed to go off, and the trucks had to carry the freshly blasted rock safely out of the way before the next blast went off, they were too heavy to stop, and if they created potholes or sinkholes on the freeway due to being overweight, they just dumped a little extra rock from the quarry right on the spot and kept on driving.