CALL FOR FEDERAL HERITAGE PROTECTION

Clayton Lewis

GEOFF VIVIAN

The Aboriginal Heritage Action Alliance in Western Australia is calling for an immediate Federal undertaking to protect Indigenous cultural heritage. 

Nhanda Widdi man and AHAA spokesman Clayton Lewis said the new Aboriginal Heritage Act passed by the WA Parliament last year was not really about protecting Aboriginal heritage.

“My group believe it’s about an approvals process for destruction to occur, we’ve been vigilant in that space and they’ve been working in it since 2015,” he said.

Mr Lewis said they were keen to meet Federal Aboriginal Affairs minister Linday Burney and Environment minister Tanya Plibersek.

“We believe that if we can feed into the development of the federal heritage legislation, along with other heritage groups from WA and around the country, we think that it just needs to be uniform all over Australia.”