Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

enator COX () (): Today I want to talk about sea country, and how important that is to First Nations underwater cultural heritage that needs to be protected. Recently, the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties examined the UN Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage and supported the ratification of this convention. First Nations people have been on this country for 65,000 years, and we've lived through significant changes in water levels. This means a lot of our cultural heritage is now underwater. Indeed, some of it has always been underwater. Rising sea levels will mean more sites will be submerged. Further, much of this cultural heritage is intangible. Our current methods of identifying underwater cultural heritage apply to shipwrecks and planes and, in fact, don't apply to our underwater cultural heritage.

One of the recommendations of the Juukan Gorge report was that Australia ratify the UN Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. The government has committed to implementing this recommendation, but we do not yet have a time line. This must be a priority for the government, if they are serious about protecting and preventing further incidences of damaging and destroying our cultural heritage. Only one out of 8,000 cultural heritage sites is listed as underwater in Australia and is protected under First Nations underwater cultural heritage protection, and that is the Brewarrina fish traps. This is absolutely shameful. This is our culture. These are our ancestors. This is our story and our connection and this is why we fight so hard to protect it. We need a government that is taking that seriously and making a commitment as soon as possible.