YINDJIBARNDI VRS FMG: DAY 1 COMPENSATION COURT CASE 2024

The Federal Court of Australia has heard evidence that Fortescue’s mining of Yindjibarndi ngurra without consent has led to deep division in the community and the loss of cultural practice.

Fortescue has mined around 500 million tonnes of iron ore from the Yindjibarndi part of the vast Solomon mine, earning more than $50 billion, without paying a cent of compensation to the Yindjibarndi people who have exclusive native title rights over the area.

Consulting anthropologist Dr Kingsley Palmer said the impact of the enormous mine, which stretches over 90 square kilometres, had deeply affected the Yindjibarndi people’s spiritual beliefs. There was “a piece chopped out of the middle of it…it’s gone, it’s lost all meaning, all integrity. Because this is a deeply held religious experience…a hurt, a loss by Yindjibarndi people.

The Yindjibarndi people had been hurt by “the loss of a right to access, and the loss of a right to be asked”.

Dr Palmer said the formation of a breakaway group with the support of Fortescue meant that cultural rituals were no longer performed the same way.

“There's a schism that means a fundamental tenant of Yindjibarndi religious belief is no longer honoured because the Yindjibarndi as a group together or as one are no longer performing those rituals as one, but as two separate groups," he said.

The evidence will be heard over three weeks.