“Mining company was given permission to blast Juukan Gorge cave, which provided a 4,000-year-old genetic link to present-day traditional owners”
Commercial imperatives matter is the true stamp for what has happened here. A narrow purpose indeed.
In Australia, we have “Sorry Day” in NAIDOC Week, which is 5th July to 12th July this year. But as I research this event which happened in Western Australia on 24th May, 2020, I feel more than sorry. It is gut-wrenching to be part of a dominant culture that has pursued its goals so ruthlessly. Perhaps it is just the continuation of a tradition the Annunaki (Asimoss) have been doing for hundreds of thousands of years on our planet and others, but in the days of the reveal we let our blindfolds slip from our eyes.
Our state capital city, Perth, which is my home, runs on the engine of mining companies exploiting our mineral resources in our large state, most notably in the Pilbara region, in north-western Australia (about 300km inland from Karratha, which is a port on our northwest coast). We have a fly-in/fly-out culture for better or worse, which allows the mining employees and supporting industries to have rotational stints in our remote and isolated zones, whilst maintaining their families in the metropolitan city.
One of those global mining companies, Rio Tinto, which we host in our city, recently did the abhorrent act of blasting two sacred Indigenous sites for the cold expedient of making more room at their Brockman 4 Iron Ore mine site. The caves were blasted over a weekend (and remember, regional COVID lockdowns were in place in this state, so there would have been very few people in the vicinity of the mine or Tom Price, the nearest town).
This has been widely reported in global news, and here are links to reports in The Guardian newspaper, and also Ancient Origins website.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/26/rio-tinto-blasts-46000-year-old-aboriginal-site-to-expand-iron-ore-mine
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/27/a-sacred-site-showing-46000-years-of-continual-occupation-and-its-completely-legal-to-blow-it-up (First Dog on the Moon cartoon – highly recommended to click on this link)
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jun/05/rio-tinto-blames-misunderstanding-for-destruction-of-46000-year-old-aboriginal-site
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/may/31/rio-tinto-apologises-to-traditional-owners-after-blasting-46000-year-old-aboriginal-site
https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-general/aboriginal-rock-shelter-0013771
The location of the Rio Tinto Mine and the Juukan Gorge in the Hamersley Ranges, Pilbara, Western Australia is about 60km from Tom Price, also close to the Karijini National Park (outside COVID times, a great tourist drawcard). The Juukan Gorge cave sites (two) had been the site of human interaction and use for at least 46,000 years, and in fact, had continued occupation including through the last Ice Age (last glacial period circa 11,700 years ago, ending with the Younger Dryas period). The Juukan Gorge caves had been used as a campsite by indigenous people (Kurrama people) within living memory of their elders.
First Dog on the Moon cartoon posted Wednesday 27th May (3 days after incident) makes this statement: “You with your skyscraper boardrooms full of Indigenous art, you can fund all the scholarships and Indigenous pathways to success that you want – none of that changes that at the heart of what you do lies cold, white disdain for anything other than profit.”
His cartoon includes a bubble indicating “Oldest Living Culture on Earth” with a bundle of sticks of dynamite right beside it.
His cartoon also names the nameless Rio Tinto executives: Simon Thompson – Chairman; J.S. Jacque – CEO; Jakob Stansholm – CFO. These people need to be named. Although the blasting was backed by legal permissions, the crime of being ethically and morally blinkered has happened here.
The executive directly responsible for the blasting act, Mr Chris Salisbury (Chief Executive, Iron Ore) completely astonished me when I heard his cop out:
“We can’t keep looking backwards,” Salisbury told interviewer Hamish Macdonald. “We want to repair our relationship with traditional owners.” He, however, said that the company had “accepted accountability”. (My comment: corporate speak in action.)
Chris Salisbury, Chief Executive - Iron Ore, Rio Tinto Australia
Jared Field, McKenzie Fellow at University of Melbourne, School of Mathematics and Statistics (of aboriginal descent) stated: “Our universities fail stupendously when they don’t teach ethical and moral responsibility.” @JM_Field5
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/05/rio-tinto-blasting-a-sacred-aboriginal-site-should-make-scientists-ask-am-i-being-a-good-ancestor
Rio Tinto had recent consultations (in March this year) with representatives of local indigenous groups, and cannot therefore exculpate themselves using the excuse of ignorance of the significance of the heritage sites.
The current Western Australian Aboriginal Affairs Minister (state government) Mr Ben Wyatt said he was unaware of the blasts or concerns prior to the incident. To be ignorant while holding such a sensitive position in this land peppered with historic and valuable sites of aboriginal heritage beggars belief.
In fact, the company has said their relationship with the PKKP people (Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura Aboriginal Corporation) goes back three decades. The devastating loss and depth of grief felt by Burchell Hayes, a local PKKP spokesman, was so great, he felt scared to break the news to his family elder, an aunt, fearing her reaction. He said the loss is “soul destroying”.
Whilst the heritage status of the site was in place for many years, the true age of the site was discovered in 2014, by an archaeological team led by Dr Michael Slack, which gave their report to Rio Tinto in 2015. This was no doubt part of due diligence on the part of the company to fund this survey, but it’s a shocking aberration that the findings were ignored. In that one survey, over 7,000 artefacts of human use of the caves were collected, including tools and grinding stones, and thousands of bones from middens (rubbish tips which build up over centuries when people eat and discard their waste in a pit or midden). The finds included sacred objects, including a plait of human hair coming from the heads of more than one individual, and proven by DNA testing to directly relate to the living descendants in the area today. This find was dated at 4,000 years old. The finds were kept at the nearby Brockman Ore mine site, however, after the blasts Chris Salisbury at first dismissed the importance of knowing their whereabouts, only coming back with the information they were kept at the mine, later. One of the things that added great significance to the heritage value of the Juukan Gorge cave site was that it had a flat floor, allowing a build-up of some metres of fine sand to accumulate over thousands of centuries, which could therefore be more easily sifted for artefacts by archaeologists. Other heritage sites in the area routinely strike rock base at 30cm depth.
In 2015 after receiving the archaeological survey report, Rio Tino funded a documentary film called Ngurra Minarli, meaning “Our Country”. Incredibly, the double standard appears to fall on deaf ears.
Consent for the caves’ destruction to increase the mine site was given by the then Minister for Aboriginal Affairs in 2013, one year before the archaeological survey updated the known history of the site. This was based on outdated but still legal legislation from 1970s (Aboriginal Heritage Act) which has already been under government review since 2012. Obviously people in government departments who hold responsibility to protect and secure these sites have not acted quickly enough to makes changes to the legislation, allowing this act of destruction to be carried out quietly while people’s attentions were distracted by COVID 19 issues worldwide.
Revised legislation which was already drafted but not yet concluded will provide options to appeal or amend agreements (made historically before the high value and significance was recognised) that allowed for destruction of heritage sites. The new legislation would also allow for mutual consent between parties, which would shorten legal processes (similar to mediation).
People in Perth ignored COVID-19 social distancing to protest the act of destruction outside the Perth city offices of Rio Tinto. As usual the impacts of corporate greed and corporate blindness to human values go deep throughout society – white and black, First Nation, Indigenous, and everyone else.
Personally, I want to make my protest, but do not believe large gatherings or public groups in dissent are appropriate right now, therefore I have made this post in the hope that readers here can inform themselves. I stand with the disenfranchised, the downtrodden, and the people hurting on this issue.
Commercial imperatives matter is the true stamp for what has happened here. A narrow purpose indeed.
In Australia, we have “Sorry Day” in NAIDOC Week, which is 5th July to 12th July this year. But as I research this event which happened in Western Australia on 24th May, 2020, I feel more than sorry. It is gut-wrenching to be part of a dominant culture that has pursued its goals so ruthlessly. Perhaps it is just the continuation of a tradition the Annunaki (Asimoss) have been doing for hundreds of thousands of years on our planet and others, but in the days of the reveal we let our blindfolds slip from our eyes.
Our state capital city, Perth, which is my home, runs on the engine of mining companies exploiting our mineral resources in our large state, most notably in the Pilbara region, in north-western Australia (about 300km inland from Karratha, which is a port on our northwest coast). We have a fly-in/fly-out culture for better or worse, which allows the mining employees and supporting industries to have rotational stints in our remote and isolated zones, whilst maintaining their families in the metropolitan city.
One of those global mining companies, Rio Tinto, which we host in our city, recently did the abhorrent act of blasting two sacred Indigenous sites for the cold expedient of making more room at their Brockman 4 Iron Ore mine site. The caves were blasted over a weekend (and remember, regional COVID lockdowns were in place in this state, so there would have been very few people in the vicinity of the mine or Tom Price, the nearest town).
This has been widely reported in global news, and here are links to reports in The Guardian newspaper, and also Ancient Origins website.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/26/rio-tinto-blasts-46000-year-old-aboriginal-site-to-expand-iron-ore-mine
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/27/a-sacred-site-showing-46000-years-of-continual-occupation-and-its-completely-legal-to-blow-it-up (First Dog on the Moon cartoon – highly recommended to click on this link)
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jun/05/rio-tinto-blames-misunderstanding-for-destruction-of-46000-year-old-aboriginal-site
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/may/31/rio-tinto-apologises-to-traditional-owners-after-blasting-46000-year-old-aboriginal-site
https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-general/aboriginal-rock-shelter-0013771
The location of the Rio Tinto Mine and the Juukan Gorge in the Hamersley Ranges, Pilbara, Western Australia is about 60km from Tom Price, also close to the Karijini National Park (outside COVID times, a great tourist drawcard). The Juukan Gorge cave sites (two) had been the site of human interaction and use for at least 46,000 years, and in fact, had continued occupation including through the last Ice Age (last glacial period circa 11,700 years ago, ending with the Younger Dryas period). The Juukan Gorge caves had been used as a campsite by indigenous people (Kurrama people) within living memory of their elders.
First Dog on the Moon cartoon posted Wednesday 27th May (3 days after incident) makes this statement: “You with your skyscraper boardrooms full of Indigenous art, you can fund all the scholarships and Indigenous pathways to success that you want – none of that changes that at the heart of what you do lies cold, white disdain for anything other than profit.”
His cartoon includes a bubble indicating “Oldest Living Culture on Earth” with a bundle of sticks of dynamite right beside it.
His cartoon also names the nameless Rio Tinto executives: Simon Thompson – Chairman; J.S. Jacque – CEO; Jakob Stansholm – CFO. These people need to be named. Although the blasting was backed by legal permissions, the crime of being ethically and morally blinkered has happened here.
The executive directly responsible for the blasting act, Mr Chris Salisbury (Chief Executive, Iron Ore) completely astonished me when I heard his cop out:
“We can’t keep looking backwards,” Salisbury told interviewer Hamish Macdonald. “We want to repair our relationship with traditional owners.” He, however, said that the company had “accepted accountability”. (My comment: corporate speak in action.)
Chris Salisbury, Chief Executive - Iron Ore, Rio Tinto Australia
Jared Field, McKenzie Fellow at University of Melbourne, School of Mathematics and Statistics (of aboriginal descent) stated: “Our universities fail stupendously when they don’t teach ethical and moral responsibility.” @JM_Field5
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/05/rio-tinto-blasting-a-sacred-aboriginal-site-should-make-scientists-ask-am-i-being-a-good-ancestor
Rio Tinto had recent consultations (in March this year) with representatives of local indigenous groups, and cannot therefore exculpate themselves using the excuse of ignorance of the significance of the heritage sites.
The current Western Australian Aboriginal Affairs Minister (state government) Mr Ben Wyatt said he was unaware of the blasts or concerns prior to the incident. To be ignorant while holding such a sensitive position in this land peppered with historic and valuable sites of aboriginal heritage beggars belief.
In fact, the company has said their relationship with the PKKP people (Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura Aboriginal Corporation) goes back three decades. The devastating loss and depth of grief felt by Burchell Hayes, a local PKKP spokesman, was so great, he felt scared to break the news to his family elder, an aunt, fearing her reaction. He said the loss is “soul destroying”.
Whilst the heritage status of the site was in place for many years, the true age of the site was discovered in 2014, by an archaeological team led by Dr Michael Slack, which gave their report to Rio Tinto in 2015. This was no doubt part of due diligence on the part of the company to fund this survey, but it’s a shocking aberration that the findings were ignored. In that one survey, over 7,000 artefacts of human use of the caves were collected, including tools and grinding stones, and thousands of bones from middens (rubbish tips which build up over centuries when people eat and discard their waste in a pit or midden). The finds included sacred objects, including a plait of human hair coming from the heads of more than one individual, and proven by DNA testing to directly relate to the living descendants in the area today. This find was dated at 4,000 years old. The finds were kept at the nearby Brockman Ore mine site, however, after the blasts Chris Salisbury at first dismissed the importance of knowing their whereabouts, only coming back with the information they were kept at the mine, later. One of the things that added great significance to the heritage value of the Juukan Gorge cave site was that it had a flat floor, allowing a build-up of some metres of fine sand to accumulate over thousands of centuries, which could therefore be more easily sifted for artefacts by archaeologists. Other heritage sites in the area routinely strike rock base at 30cm depth.
In 2015 after receiving the archaeological survey report, Rio Tino funded a documentary film called Ngurra Minarli, meaning “Our Country”. Incredibly, the double standard appears to fall on deaf ears.
Consent for the caves’ destruction to increase the mine site was given by the then Minister for Aboriginal Affairs in 2013, one year before the archaeological survey updated the known history of the site. This was based on outdated but still legal legislation from 1970s (Aboriginal Heritage Act) which has already been under government review since 2012. Obviously people in government departments who hold responsibility to protect and secure these sites have not acted quickly enough to makes changes to the legislation, allowing this act of destruction to be carried out quietly while people’s attentions were distracted by COVID 19 issues worldwide.
Revised legislation which was already drafted but not yet concluded will provide options to appeal or amend agreements (made historically before the high value and significance was recognised) that allowed for destruction of heritage sites. The new legislation would also allow for mutual consent between parties, which would shorten legal processes (similar to mediation).
People in Perth ignored COVID-19 social distancing to protest the act of destruction outside the Perth city offices of Rio Tinto. As usual the impacts of corporate greed and corporate blindness to human values go deep throughout society – white and black, First Nation, Indigenous, and everyone else.
Personally, I want to make my protest, but do not believe large gatherings or public groups in dissent are appropriate right now, therefore I have made this post in the hope that readers here can inform themselves. I stand with the disenfranchised, the downtrodden, and the people hurting on this issue.
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