WA Aboriginal sites threatened

By Leon Harrison

PERTH -- Aboriginal sacred sites are threatened with destruction at Yakabindie, where the state government has given Dominion Mining the go-ahead to mine for nickel. The advisory Aboriginal Cultural Materials Committee accepted a report that there are only two sites of significance to Aboriginal people in the area.

However, a second report by University of WA anthropologists Jemma Pope and Phillip Moore revealed another 18 sites. In early January, one site was destroyed, though there had been no mining activity nearby. The damage appears to have been deliberate.

Also of concern to local Aboriginal people is an incident in which men from the Department of Conservation and Land Management visited a women's site against the people's wishes. After a fleeting and unscientific inspection, the government officials okayed mining, which amounts to a death sentence on the local population of the lesser stick nest rat, extinct in other areas of WA.

The Ngalia Aboriginal people have requested the Sites Department to make an extensive survey of Aboriginal sites in the area and have them officially recorded before they are lost forever. They are also calling for a federal investigation into Aboriginal affairs in WA.

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