Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Hansard source

The Murujuga were not contacted until very late. In attempting to contact the corporation and make my apologies as a senator for Western Australia that they'd failed to be contacted, it took me quite some time—but I was very determined to make that contact. I think that, when you are dealing with first-nations people who live in remote places, you need to make those allowances. In the end, I managed to contact them, and I put my apologies to them on behalf of Labor senators that they had not been contacted or that the secretariat or whoever hadn't made a great attempt at contacting. So I really want to put their perspective.

At the conclusion of their evidence, they invited all senators to visit the Burrup. I took them up on that invitation to visit the Burrup and to look at the rock art and the site and the sorts of development that they want to see in the Burrup from their perspective. And I have to say that was an amazing visit for me. They welcomed me with open arms. I met with the rangers.

They don't want people climbing on the rocks, and certainly, when we went out there, there were people climbing on the rocks. I have to say that I am really ashamed that there is not better protection out there. If one looks at Stonehenge in the UK, it is fenced and has got proper respect. The Burrup's got some old signs that you can barely read. It's got a bit of a history there but not much. You can just go up to the rock and do whatever. You could take pieces of the rock away. So I think that, if we are passionate about the rock art, whilst we come to it from different perspectives in this place, we certainly should pay it better respect than is currently the case. It needs far better protection than it's currently got. It should be fenced. There should be boardwalks. There should be signs respecting the traditional owners' views that the rocks should not be climbed on.

The rangers there gave me an orientation about the Burrup and their traditional lands. It was quite a different orientation. It had very much a spiritual approach. The rangers were incredibly respectful of the land and at great pains to point out to me that strong cultural link that Senator Dodson referred to in the beginning. They really don't want people visiting the sites without first of all doing the orientation that they presented to me. After we'd done that orientation and I had the opportunity to ask them questions, we went and visited some of that rock art.

Again, I was really privileged to be part of a welcome. When the rangers go to work each day, they speak in language. They speak to the spirits of the place, and they warn them that they're to behave themselves, basically, and that the visitors who are with them are friends and are not going to do any harm. It was an enormous privilege for me, and I thank the Murujuga rangers for taking me on that journey to be part of that welcome, where, in a very stern voice, the head ranger, a traditional owner, warded the spirits off and said we were there to come in peace and to do the work of the day.

Later, I was taken to an area of more significance as well. It wasn't covered in our inquiry but again deserves support, recognition and protection. There was a massacre there, and there are a number of headstones that represent the number of first-nations men, women and children who were slaughtered by white colonialists. Again, that's just out there in an open space that you can trample on if you don't know that it's a respected spiritual place. Again, that should be protected. It is acknowledged by first-nations people as a spiritual place of recognition of the slaughter, so that should also be protected.

But the Murujuga also want to have economic stability. They want to be able to thrive as a corporation representing those five traditional owner groups, and they want economic independence. They have some really solid plans that are properly thought out about developing a living knowledge centre at Conzinc Bay. I think those plans should be respected. I know that, shortly after my visit, Premier Mark McGowan was going up there. I urge the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation to really put pressure on the Premier to look at how we might get money to set up that living knowledge centre. As Senator Dodson outlined, those rangers don't have control over their lands. They can kind of ask people nicely to move on, but if people don't move on they don't have any powers to move them on. I know that Minister Dawson in the Western Australian government is trying to sort that out and give those rangers real control over the land. On the weekends, young people go screaming through the bush in their utes—and we've all done that, and it can be fun. But as you get older you realise it's not good for the bush, and in a spiritual place like that it's certainly not good and it's not respectful.

The traditional owners believe that, if they can develop this living knowledge centre and if they have a road going in and a road going out, they can start to block off and control some of the other dirt tracks there and stop the free-for-all that's currently going on across their traditional lands. Their plans are well developed. There is a business case behind them. I would urge the WA government and the federal government to look at how, in partnership with the Murujuga corporation, we can make those plans a reality. Around that rock art there's a magnificent story to be told, and it could be told from that living knowledge centre. That would also then create tourist dollars for the Murujuga corporation, which would give them some kind of economic independence. It seems to me that that is a project absolutely worth looking at more seriously and getting some serious dollars behind.

We are saying that this rock art is of important value. It is important to first-nations people but it is also important to us. It's a link to civilisation that goes back thousands and thousands of years. So let's make it respectful. Let's fence it, let's put proper boardwalks in, let's detail the history—let's do that with the Murujuga corporation. Senator Smith touched on this in his contribution: the Murujuga corporation are not necessarily opposed to World Heritage; they just want to be consulted. How many times do we hear first nations people saying to us, 'Sit down and yarn with us,' and that's what they're asking to happen in this place. They want details around that, but I think their primary concerns are getting some better control as rangers across their own lands, getting the living knowledge centre set up to give them independence, in an economic sense, and protecting and recognising from a cultural and spiritual perspective the importance of the Burrup rock art. I commend the Labor report to the Senate. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.