INTERVIEWS: YINDJIBARNDI LEADERS MICHAEL WOODLEY AND KEVIN GUINESS ON FMG COMPENSATION CASE
LEFT: Michael Woodley. RIGHT: Kevin Guiness. Credit: Tangiora Hinaki.
A remote camp on Yindjibarndi country was full of activity this week. Traditional Owners and their supporters went swimming, shared meals, and yarned around the camp fire. They also gave and heard evidence presented as part of Federal Court hearings in a high-profile court case which could set a significant precedent.
The camp ground, at Bangkangarra, is within kilometres of Fortescue Metals Groups (FMG)’s massive Solomon Hub iron ore mine.
The Federal Court sat to determine how much in royalties and compensation FMG owes the Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation (YAC) for mining on Yindjibarndi country without permission at the Solomon Hub for over a decade.
YAC is seeking upwards of $500 million. FMG claims YAC may be entitled to compensation, but it should come from the state government.
If the compensation claim is successful and YAC is compensated for a loss of cultural values, it will set a precedent which will shape relationships between miners and Traditional Owners throughout Australia.
Witnesses for YAC told the court how FMG had sown division with the Yindjibarndi community by funding and supporting a breakaway group, Wirlu-Murra Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation.
At Bangkangarra, YAC CEO Michael Woodley told Ngaarda Media the Yindjibarndi Nation would succeed if it was united.
“When people have their own interests, it always ends up bad for the nation,” he said.
“If we’re together, it really doesn’t matter how long it takes us, as long as we stand together and we see it through.”
Listen to the full interview with Yindjibarndi Nation/YAC CEO Michael Woodley about the Federal Court case and the future of the Yindjibarndi Nation:
Yindjibarndi leader Kevin Guiness testified to the Federal Court at Bangkangarra on Thursday.
He told Ngaarda Media the area was “significant to our Yindjibarndi people,” and he would visit with family as a child.
“We’d come out from the east. There’s a road where the mine is now. We’d come in through there, to sing out here.
“Before [the mine] there were a lot of birdarra birds when I came here. But now, when I came in here Sunday, nothing, all gone.”
Listen to the full interview with Kevin Guiness, to hear how the country around the Solomon Hub has changed, and his experience of a site visit on Monday to the FMG minesite: