Mayumi KAMADA
Aboriginal people in theYirrkala community organised a campaign
against a boxcite mine project at Gove Peninsula in the 1960s by
claiming that the mine would destroy their sacred sites. The movement
encouraged nation-wide Aboriginal land rights movements and led to
the introduction of the Aboriginal Land Right (Northern Territory)
Act 1976. The Aboriginal way of land ownership was translated
into the European-based legal system, and the existence of sacred
sites became important to claim land rights under the legislation. It
was also the case for native title claims under the Native Title
Act 1993. Furthermore various laws were introduced to legalise
the protection of sacred sites.
Since the 1990s, Mirrar-Gundjehmi Aborigines have been cooperating
with various environmental organisations against the uranium mine
project in Jabilka. They also argued that the land was a source of
their culture and living tradition, and urged the campaign as a fight
for cultural survival. Campaigning for inscription of the Kakadu
National Park on 'the List of World Heritage in Danger' became a
crucial strategy in order to stop the project. The campaign at the
World Heritage Committee brought out the concept of 'cultural
landscape' as 'combined works of nature and of man', and Mirrar
people were recoginised as legitimate 'actors' for intervening and
maintaining the landscape. The committee requested the Australian
government to promote dialogue with the Mirrar people.
The paper argues that discourse on protecting Aboriginal sacred sites
against mine projects has has been the catalyst for political
dialogues in Australian society. Every sacred site has a very local
and specific nature in maintaining the tradition and culture of the
Aboriginal groups responsible for the site. But the discourse could
forge pan-Aboriginal movements by mobilising even 'non-traditional'
Aborigines, because the concept of 'sacred site' is uniquely
Aboriginal and symbolises genuineness of Aboriginality. Accommodating
the concept of sacred sites and Aboriginal culture in Australian
political and legal institutions has provided a basis for Aboriginal
people to claim indigenous rights and political power. It also
implies that land has not only economic but cultural values. Claims
for protecting sacred sites should be understood, therefore, as the
pursuance of Aboriginal rights for political, economic, social, and
cultural self-determination.
The recognition of sacred sites in non-Aboriginal institutions has
raised problems as well. The secretiveness of authentic sacred sites
sometimes contradicts the recognition because it requires scientific
evidence of the sites for the public. The feeling of unfairness has
been growing among 'non-traditional' Aborigines who cannot claim
land. Furthermore, due to the political power of Australian
Aboriginal people, their claims for self-determination tend to be
internalised and separated from the international movements for
ensuring indigenous rights.