Call to freeze projects at all sacred sites

JUUKAN INQUIRY

Nick Toscano

Juukan Gorge before it was destroyed by Rio Tinto.

A federal inquiry investigating Rio Tinto’s destruction of the 46,000-year-old Juukan Gorge rock shelters has called for a moratorium on all mining projects that threaten sacred Indigenous sites across Western Australia until new legislation has been passed.

Following months of public hearings into the disaster, the Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia last night issued a series of recommendations, the most far-reaching of which was a call for the WA state government and mining companies to commit to a freeze on all new approvals to disturb or destroy culturally significant sites.

The committee has also recommended Rio Tinto negotiate a restitution package with the traditional owners, the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) people and that the miner fund a ‘‘full reconstruction’’ of the two rock shelters.

‘‘Rio Tinto’s role in this tragedy is inexcusable,’’ the committee’s interim report said. ‘‘Rio knew the value of what they were destroying but blew it up anyway.’’

The blasting of the Juukan Gorge site was was legally sanctioned but went against the wishes of the traditional owners who told the inquiry they were not aware of Rio Tinto’s intention to destroy the site until it was too late for the explosive charges to be removed. The miner was given permission in 2013 to blast the site under Section 18 legislation of the WA Aboriginal Heritage Act that provides only the applicants, not the traditional owners, the ability to seek a review of earlier decisions in the event new information comes to light.

The loss of the Juukan Gorge rock shelters and the federal inquiry have drawn attention to the power imbalance underpinning relations between mining companies and Indigenous groups, including ‘‘gag’’ clauses in land-use contracts that ban traditional owners from publicly objecting to projects on their ancestral land, and the outdated Section 18 legislation, which is now being reviewed by the WA government.

Rio Tinto has apologised and conceded multiple failures in its engagement with the PKKP in the lead-up to the blast on May 24. The miner wrote to 12 Indigenous groups across WA’s Pilbara in October, vowing to free them from any gag clauses contained in land-use agreements and improve social and economic benefits provided for mining their ancestral land.

Rio has previously told the inquiry it was engaged directly with the PKKP on determining an ‘‘appropriate remedy. It is also taking action to protect the Juukan site from the wet season amid talks about remediation.