The Basis for Mirarr Opposition to Uranium Mining

The most serious concern of Mirarr is the destruction of country and the decline of traditional culture which will result from continued mining on Mirarr land.

Mirarr country encompasses the Ranger and Jabiluka Mineral Leases, the mining town of Jabiru and parts of Kakadu National Park. This is confirmed by Bininj (Aboriginal) law and by balanda (non-Aboriginal) law under the Aboriginal Land Rights (NT) Act 1976.

The enclave boundaries of the Jabiluka and Ranger Mineral Leases are not recognised under Bininj law. The mineral leases do not concur with any “borders” established by Mirarr or other Bininj. This has been reiterated in recent discussion between senior Bininj at a meeting held in Kakadu where it was stated:

“A lot of argument is caused by balanda making lines on maps to show how Aboriginal land ownership is represented. It isn’t like that...Arguments are forced on us when we are forced to make decisions in the interest of some group of balanda or government...we are continually forced and harassed until they get what they want.”
(minutes, Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation, 15/9/98)

Mirarr are the only clan group with ultimate rights and obligations to the land within the Jabiluka excision. Other clan groups are affected by the area and Mirarr owe responsibilities to these groups.

Mirarr and other Bininj have dreaming tracks which traverse country. These dreaming tracks cross both the Jabiluka and Ranger Mineral Leases and the World Heritage Area. These spiritual connections to country should only be described by particular Traditional Owners and Custodians to particular people at particular times.

Mirarr and other Bininj have many sacred sites all over country. These sacred sites exist within the Jabiluka and Ranger Mineral Leases and are interconnected with the spiritual and cultural significance of the entire Mirarr estate and other Bininj country, including the World Heritage Area. Again, these spiritual connections to country should only be described by particular Traditional Owners and Custodians to particular people at particular times.

There are many sacred sites which are not afforded “protection” by the mining company of Government.. One that has been publicly identified by the Traditional Owners and Custodians is the Boywek-Almudj sacred sites which is very close to the proposed Jabiluka uranium mine. There are many other sites on the Jabiluka excision which have not been identified by Bininj for a range of cultural reasons. Some of these sites are at present being directly and severely impacted upon by the proposed Jabiluka uranium mine.

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Mirarr and other Bininj have traditionally hunted, gathered, held ceremonies, lived and died at places all over Mirarr estate, including the Jabiluka Mineral Lease. Balanda scientists have “proved” this by discovering ancient remains and rock art all over Mirarr country, including the Jabiluka Mineral Lease. The Australian Government believed one of the archaeological sites inside the Jabiluka Mineral Lease (Malakananja II) to be so important that it specifically referred to it when seeking inscription of Kakadu National Park on the World Heritage List.

Mirarr and other Bininj believe that culturally significant sites will be damaged by the construction of the Jabiluka uranium mine. Damage to these spiritual sites not only destroys living tradition from a balanda anthropological viewpoint - Mirarr believe that damage to these sites will have actual cataclysmic consequences.

Mirarr are less likely to go to the area of the Jabiluka Mineral Lease because it is country which has been taken from them and damaged in a way which makes the country dangerous.

Mirarr believe that mining activity on the Jabiluka Mineral Lease presents a genocidal danger to their living tradition. Mirarr base this belief on their knowledge of land and culture inherited from ancestors since time immemorial and from their experiences of the Ranger uranium mine over the past twenty years.

Mirarr believe that their living tradition has sustained an extreme attack as a result of the process by which industrial development has taken place. This attack lies in the refusal by the Australian government to recognise fundamental Mirarr rights to land and the exercise of those rights by Mirarr.

The Jabiluka uranium mine project will bring more balanda to the region and entrench the power of balanda organisations and systems in the region. It is the opinion of Mirarr that balanda cultural, economic and political systems destroy Bininj living tradition. Further, Mirarr believe there is a cumulative impact of the Jabiluka mine proceeding at the same time as the Ranger operations.

This loss of cultural significance impacts negatively on all aspects of Mirarr living tradition, including food collection, ceremony, customary law, spiritual connection and socio-political systems.

Mirarr and other Bininj recognise that the practice of living tradition is declining at a disturbing rate. There are many social problems associated with a decline in living tradition - including alcoholism, community violence, chronic health problems, disinterest in education, structural poverty and collective despair and hopelessness. These social, economic and political problems impose further constraints on Mirarr and other Bininj exercising their living tradition and have served to create a dangerous cycle of cultural decline.

Mirarr and other Bininj have been identifying the dangers to living tradition since first contact with balanda. Mirarr believe that nearly all these dangers to living tradition are products of the failure of the balanda world to recognise Bininj law and jurisdiction. They include government practices such as stealing children and ignoring established political systems; church practices such as preventing the observance of traditional religions and customary law; and individual actions such as rape, murder and enslavement.

However in recent times Mirarr and other Bininj have identified one particular balanda activity as the primary source of danger to living tradition in Kakadu - mining.

Mirarr do not argue that mining alone is impacting on living tradition - Mirarr argue that mining and its associated social, economic and political impacts are the single greatest impact and that an additional mine will push Bininj culture past the point of cultural exhaustion to genocidal decay.

Aborigines and Uranium:

Report on the Social Impact of Uranium Mining on the Aborigines of the Northern Territory, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra, 1984.

Summary of Recommendations

1. Given the findings of this Project and the demonstrated fragility of the community at this point, any new mining or other major development in the Region, including tourism, in the present circumstances and under prevailing conditions will seriously intensify the grave problems already being faced by people in the Aboriginal domain.

   

2. There should be a commitment by government to sensitive intervention, and to planned procedures to assist the Aboriginal community’s survival, growth, and flourishing.
3. Immediate steps should be taken to create a professionally competent national task force to help Aborigines acquire the necessary skills and techniques for their survival alongside prolonged uranium mining and/or development in the Region. The aims of the task force should be:
   • To create a partnership through which Aborigines come to know about, understand, and use the precepts and tools inherent in the activities and processes that impinge on their present and future lives: such as the elements of western law, of politics (local, national and international), economics, industrial development, entrepreneurship, science, technology, and western notions of conservation.
   • To create, through that partnership, a governmental knowledge, understanding, and use of precepts and tools inherent in the Aboriginal world: such as their scale and ordering of social relationships, their political, economic, communications and decision-making processes, their system of science and technology, and their perception of their living landscape.

   

4. Any further mining or development should not take place before this task force is created and has developed guidelines and procedures which effectively attempt to mitigate the deleterious effects of mining and development on Aboriginals in the Region, and reinforces the positive aspects of development.
5. Any proposal for new uranium mining or other major development within the next ten years should be the subject of a new, full environmental impact statement and, if necessary, a subsequent public inquiry which, taking into account the findings of this Project and the work of the task force, fully assesses the social impact of such further development and recommends accordingly.
6. There should be continued monitoring of the social impact of uranium mining in this Region, in co-operation with the task force and with a stronger formal link with the Office of the Supervising Scientist.
7. There should be consideration of a revised procedure by which Aborigines may, by law, commission their own environmental impact statement as a counter to that produced by the developer, leading to an arbitration between competing or conflicting aims, clauses, and claims (as in Canada).
8. There must be an immediate program of education for Aborigines about uranium: its uses, abuses, values, hazards, and safeguards.