SACRED SITE SAVED IN PORT HEDLAND

In Marapakarinya, Port Hedland, a Kariyarra elder stopped a walkway being constructed over a sacred site between Pretty Pool and Cook Point.

Kariyarra elder Patricia Mason said she had successfully applied to have the site heritage listed several years beforehand.

“When the sacred site consists of a person, it’s called a *wanatha,” she said. “It walked with his wife, his dog, and his child, and this is about five to twenty-five thousand years ago. Its imprint is embedded in the stone out at Pretty Pool.”

Karriyarra Elder, Pat Mason

However, Ms. Mason said construction work started regardless.

“I was in Perth, and my brother and my sisters said that something had been done, and a drill rig was there, so I asked them to go back down to the site and take photos of the site to stop the activity,” she said.

This month Ms. Mason said she had been told it was now before the Aboriginal Cultural Materials Committee to be approved for additional protection as a recognised Aboriginal site.

Ms. Mason said she was confident the site, which was also a traditional camping and shell-fishing area, would be protected under the new Aboriginal Heritage Act.

“I think section five of the act actually holds a lot of weight because it’s the same as Port Hedland Harbour,” she said. “Whether it’s the right story or the wrong story, it does not matter. At least it’s actually held and it’s secured because a lot of sites should actually have the label of Section 5.”