Traditional custodians from Murujuga are speaking at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, this week to address concerns about their cultural heritage and sacred rock art in the face of industrial threats from Woodside’s Scarborough gas and related projects on Western Australia’s Burrup Peninsula.
Raelene Cooper and Josie Alec will address the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. They are traditional custodians of Murujuga, also known as the Burrup Peninsula, the site of the oldest, largest collection of Aboriginal rock art in the world. Murujuga is nominated for UNESCO world heritage listing but it is also the site of Australia’s largest fossil fuel project, Woodside Energy’s Burrup Hub, the latest addition to which is the massive Scarborough gas project.
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Murujuga is a deeply sacred place and priceless cultural treasure but the sacred songlines and stories contained in its carvings are being damaged by emissions from the Burrup Hub and face total destruction within decades.
Traditional custodians have voiced their opposition to further development on Murujuga but have been silenced by ‘gag clauses’ in industrial agreements with the WA government.
Ms Cooper and Ms Alec launched their Save Our Songlines campaign last year to share the concerns of First Nations custodians about the threat posed by the fossil fuel industry to their sacred Murujuga rock art. Murujuga elders and custodians have previously shared their cultural heritage concerns and made several emergency applications and requests for further consultation from government and industry.
Despite engaging with the Federal government previously presenting their concerns to WA Parliament, traditional custodians are still silenced and ignored by the Australian government and by industry. By speaking this week at the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Geneva, Ms Alec and Ms Cooper will share the stories of this sacred landscape with a global audience and ensure that the whole world is aware of what is at stake in this critical clash between culture and industry.
Raelene Cooper is a Mardudhunera woman with obligations, responsibilities and spiritual connection to Murujuga and former Chairperson of the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation (MAC), before she resigned from the MAC board earlier this year over concerns about constraints and co-option by industry and a lack of consultation or consent of traditional custodians.
Addressing the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on Tuesday, Cooper said, “Coming from a tradition of spiritual healing, we increasingly feel the urgent need to defend our ancient history, our stories and our culture. We hold a spiritual connection and continue to comply with our Cultural Protocols and Governance. Our traditions continue and are practised still today. The ngurra, our land, is our temple and our parliament. The rock art archives our lore. It is written not on a tablet of stone, but carved into the ngurra, which holds our Dreaming stories and Songlines.
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“The Australian Senate Inquiry into the 45,000 year old Juukan Gorge disaster strongly recommended the removal of gag clauses in all industrial agreements with First Nations people. And yet, on Murujuga we are still silenced by gag clauses in the 2003 original agreement with the state government that determines land use on our sacred ngurra.
“We are here to pass down knowledge for a better understanding of First Nations history, and for the protection of mother earth and all her people. I make the recommendation that the free, prior and informed consent of First Nations custodians be guaranteed through active consultation about any new industry on our Country.”
