sea bed mining, page-54

Yilyanga,

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"Destruction of all the Song Lines is not needed to decimate the GE's Ceremonial Life. The disappearance of one song line, or indeed its serious dislocation would amount, in my opinion, to cultural genocide- the inability of a whole family, in this family based culture, to be reborn, from their perspective."

So hasn't this already occurred?

Groote Eylandt river runs black
By Lorna Perry from Angurugu 0822
Wednesday, 25/11/2009
The Anindilyakwa land and sea rangers on Groote Eylandt say the health of one of their rivers has been damaged by the local manganese mine.
Run by BHP Billiton, the GEMCO mine is located right next to the community of Angurugu and the Angurugu river.
In the last financial year 2.3 million tonnes of manganese were produced from the mine - a mine that's regarded by the company as one of the lowest-cost manganese ore producers in the world.
Russell Lalara works with the Anindilyakwa land and sea rangers and says traditional owners are starting to notice the impact the mine is having on the local environment.
He explains the once clear river is now black and muddy from manganese.
"It used to be deep out there... my family used to drive big speedboat right up to the communities, now we can't do that.
"Used to be really clear, now I can't see any fish."
Mr Lalara explains the river bears both cultural and spiritual significance for his people and nothing's been done by the mine to fix it yet.
"We're going to have to let the miners know that this is our problem and this is what we want them to fix.
"We made an agreement if they do mine out there in our country we told them they should look after it and do the right thing by us."
The traditional owners and mine operators usually work well alongside each other and it will be a case of informing the mine about the problem to start the rehabilitation process.
"Nothing's been said about it but if we do tell the miners to do the right thing and clean it up, it might take a couple of years, it never happens tomorrow, it might take a decade or maybe more," he says.
A spokeswoman for BHP Billiton says GEMCO has various water monitoring applications that are audited regularly and there is also frequent consultation with local stakeholders.
The company also says it has an overriding commitment towards protecting the environment and sustainable development.
The mine was first commissioned in 1965 and in 2006 the leases were renewed for 25 years.
Mr Lalara says the company wants to explore further but the additional leases are on Aboriginal-owned land.
"Even though they got the lease they should come back and say: 'Can we mine on your land?' and if we say 'no' they're going to have to wait another... five years to come back to us and we still say no, then they're going to have to wait five years.
"Doesn't matter how long it takes, they still come back.
"In 100 years... if they really want to mine there they'll never stop coming back... it takes forever!"
An agreement was made between the Anindilyakwa people and the mining company prior to the mine going ahead.
But Mr Lalara says the traditional owners at the time did not really understand how widespread it would be.
"It was our ancestors, our great grandfathers who didn't know what was going to happen to the land and they thought it was just a 100-metre step by 100-metres north, west, south, east.
"But it wasn't like that and they didn't understand.
"So 2006 - 2009 we realised that they are damaging our country and we should say no to everything."
Mr Lalara says its also important that the country remain undisturbed because of song lines that run across the island.
BHP Billiton says it will continue to work with local stakeholders in regard to lease area access on the Eylandt.