David Prestipino, National Indigenous Times
A prominent First Nations leader in the Kimberley has called for an independent panel chaired by an industry leader and Indigenous expert to re-draft WA’s doomed Aboriginal Cultural Heritage legislation.
Nyikina man and former Kimberley Land Council CEO Wayne Bergmann said a roundtable of industry, pastoralists, farmers, native title holders and land councils should be involved in drafting the new laws.
Bureaucrats responsible for the current Act, which came into effect on July 1 but looks set to be repealed, should steer well clear of discussions, he said.
“We need an independent panel that can develop a solution for Aboriginal heritage that we can all live with,” said Mr Bergmann, a director and co-owner of National Indigenous Times.
“Common ground that protects Aboriginal cultural heritage and progresses development approvals must be found.”
The WA Government is set to scrap the Act, which was rushed through Parliament in 2021, and return to legislation from 1972, with premier Roger Cook explaining the backflip to party colleagues on Monday morning ahead of a special briefing of Labor caucus tonight.
The state government is expected to amend the 1972 Act to allow traditional owners to appeal an approval to damage cultural heritage.
Mr Bergmann, who has spent his life advocating First Nations heritage and advised Rio Tinto in the years after the mining titan blew up the sacred Juukan Gorge in 2020, was opposed to the new laws, claiming it would not protect such important cultural sites in the future.
He said wherever the new Act landed, it would never please everybody as there were too many stakeholders with their own agenda.
“There will always be some who are not entirely happy with the legislation, but in today’s day and age we need to find a balance we can all live with so we can get on with our lives,” Mr Bergmann said.
“We’re not going anywhere, nor are the farmers, or industry.”
Mr Bergmann, who is also a director on the Walalakoo Aboriginal Corporation board, said the writing was on the wall and Mr Cook was brave to scrap the current Act.
“He has shown good leadership, it was better now than never,” he said.
“I protested the laws from an Indigenous heritage side but we also highlighted issues such as the need for assessments on 1100sqm backyards.”
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said on Monday afternoon the Albanese government was not intending to take on the cultural heritage protection laws of any state or territory.
“We have our own process in place … the consultation with the First Nations Heritage Protection Alliance begun by the former minister for the environment,” she said during Question Time.
“We’re talking about updates to Commonwealth laws, we’re not talking about duplicating, copying, adopting, any WA laws.”
The Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura Aboriginal Corporation, the traditional owners of Juukan Gorge, expressed their outrage at WA’s plans to scrap the new Act, which was in part designed to prevent the catastrophic destruction of its sacred site in 2020.
“The previous heritage act, which predates Native Title, permitted the wanton destruction of Juukan Gorge,” PKKP chairman Terry Drage said in a statement.
“While the new Act is not perfect, it is better than what it replaced.”
This article appeared on National Indigenous Times on 7 August 2023.
