News: FMG Fortescue Appoints Noel Pearson As A Non-Executive Director, page-76

WA Aboriginal community reject $10 million per year for land rights

"Even offers of jobs for local Aboriginal people have been slammed by Woodley, because he claims it is “just another attempt at white assimilation.”"We don’t want to be trained as labour for Fortescue’s mines," he says."We want a fair share in the mineral wealth of our traditional country, to create our own businesses and jobs, to deliver better healthcare and educate our children."We are doing that already, through our Juluwarlu organisation, recording our languages, history and culture in books, CDs and films.”The people in the Roebourne Aboriginal village, about 40 kilometres from the Pilbara mining town of Karratha have a high dependence on social security and 20 people are often crammed into the tiny homes where alcohol and drugs are rife.Despite the offers of well-paying jobs in nearby mines, most Aboriginal people in the area are unwilling to make the change, and the imprisonment rates remain high.Woodley said the Aboriginal people are scared by the idea of working in a mine on their traditional and many are illiterate, perhaps because the rate of school attendance remains low."