Sacred Country (2020)

In 2006, Whitefella miners, with the support of their governments, diverted McArthur River and dug a huge open cut pit in the bed of our river. Then they started building a massive waste rock dump to hide their deadly waste in our Country. The miners waste will be here for thousands of years. They did this to us right in the middle of Sacred Country, right where the Snake Dreamings are, where the Jabiru, the Barramundi, Dingo and Turtle Dreamings are. They cut our Dreaming tracks and threaten our culture and our futures as Aboriginal people. How do we sing the sacred songs when the Dreaming tracks have been destroyed? We feel no good, heavy in our hearts but we keep fighting.1

  • 1
    Mr Jack Green, Submission 154, p. 10.

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About this inquiry

On Thursday 11 June 2020 The Senate referred the following inquiry to the Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia for inquiry and report by 30 September 2020:

The destruction of 46,000 year old caves at the Juukan Gorge in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

On Monday, 7 December 2020 The Senate agreed to a reporting extension for the following inquiry to the Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia for inquiry and report by 18 October 2021.

Submissions Closed.



Past Public Hearings

27 Aug 2021: Canberra
08 Jul 2021: Canberra
06 Jul 2021: Canberra