Western Australia

First Nations people in West Australia's Pilbara iron ore region are taking on BHP Billiton over its claim for leases covering 200 square kilometres of their tribal country.

Western Australian law intended to maintain social responsibility is in grievous danger. This is because WA's parliament plans to revise legislation designed to protect Aboriginal heritage. The revisions will make it easier for developers to disturb this heritage. We have to take a step back tens of thousands of years to see why.

An overview by Dr Nick Herriman from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the School of Social Sciences and Communications at La Trobe University. [node:read-more:link]

The Martu people in remote Western Australia hunt kangaroos and set small grass fires to catch lizards, as they have many thousands of years. A University of Utah researcher found such man-made disruption boosts kangaroo populations – showing how co-evolution helped marsupials and made First Nations people into conservationists.

The findings suggest that Australia might want to encourage small-scale burning to bolster wildlife populations in certain areas. [node:read-more:link]

Further damage by vandals has been discovered at the site of some of the world's oldest and largest Aboriginal carvings, which have laid undisturbed for centuries on the Burrup Peninsula. Not only is the site vulnerable to the destruction of country meted out some of Australia's biggest mining projects, but there is also a total failure of governments to protect the site from grand theft and casual vandals.

The true owners say they do not want to have to close off areas to the public. [node:read-more:link]

A great overview of the proposed changes in the WA heritage Act - The new and the old - the good and the bad by Nicholas Herriman of Latrobe University.

The fast pace of development in WA has destroyed much First Nations heritage. In recognition of this, WA’s parliament passed, in 1972, the Aboriginal Heritage Act. Now they propose an updated model but the revisions will make it easier for developers to disturb heritage sites. [node:read-more:link]

Kirstyn March, Rebecca Brewin ABC Goldfields 18 June 2014

Warburton elder Daisy Ward recently left Australia for the first time to attend the World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education. [node:read-more:link]