Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, congratulations. This week the Juukan inquiry report was tabled. We have heard from so many of you in this place about the importance of protecting First Nations cultural heritage. Well, guess what: it's happened again. It's not in the newspapers, and you're not screaming about it in the chamber, but it's happened again.

Where did it happen? In Queensland under the Labor government, this time. The Kabi Kabvai people of the Gympie region in Queensland are fighting to protect their sacred site, the Djaki Kundu. The Djaki Kundu is an ancient healing site. The sovereign native tribes of the Gubbi First Nations say it is connected to the creator, Biral. It is the place to learn about the sky ancestors, the Seven Sisters Dreaming story and the creation of Gubbi at the beginning of time. Protecting and using the site to perform ceremony is an important part of the Gubbi people's spiritual and religious practices.

The site is under threat from works by the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads for the Bruce Highway expansion between Cooroy and Curra. These works have been signed off by native title applicants over the area, and the department is ignoring that Gubbi cultural heritage exists at the site. The groups under the native title claim have changed over the years—surprise, surprise. As we learnt during the Juukan inquiry, native title alone does not tell you who has cultural heritage links to a site. We know native title is dodgy; we heard that. We need to learn—you need to learn—to listen to all traditional owners that are concerned, not just the ones that will tell you what you want to hear. You know that's part of the sophistication of how you manufacture consent: you go to the 'yes' people and you leave behind the people that are trying to fight for country. In November 2020, a court found that the Gubbi people have a right to protect their country. That is all Gubbi people, not just the native title claimants that you choose. Yet Minister Ley refused a section 10 application under the ATSIHP Act over the Djaki Kundu.

Gubbi people themselves have been busy carrying out scientific studies of the area to document their cultural heritage, yet the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads had six traditional owners arrested and imprisoned. The bail conditions now prevent them from returning to their sacred site. Their tribal camp, including their bush food and medicine gardens, was destroyed, and we don't know what happened to the sacred Kab'vai bees. Tribal elders are now separated from the ancestral spirits and country at the Djaki Kundu. They have seen their sacred fire extinguished. They are removed from their spiritual home and are traumatised and in sorry business.

Research materials, tools and tribal artefacts recovered during the scientific study of the Djaki Kundu were taken by the Department of Transport and Main Roads. The Djaki Kundu has thousands of Gubbi artefacts and other evidence as it has been used for ceremony by Gubbi ancestors since the beginning of time. It is again a sign of the continuation of the colonial oppression of our people when government departments intentionally destroy our heritage and interfere with processes to protect it. Minister Ley, I call on you to make use of your ministerial powers: do the right thing and protect the Djaki Kundu. We all said 'never again' when Juukan happened. When will we actually mean it?