YINDJIBARNDI TESTIFY ON COUNTRY IN MINING COMPENSATION HEARINGS

BY CONRAD MACLEAN

Yindjibarndi Leaders about to start smoking ceremony.

The historic legal battle between the Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation (YAC) and Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) continues this week with Federal Court hearings taking place on country.

The Court will determine how much compensation FMG owes the Yindjibarndi people for mining on their country without consent and destroying heritage sites.

The Court toured FMG’s Solomon Hub iron ore project in the Pilbara on Monday. 

It visited various sacred Yindjibarndi areas which elders said have been disturbed by mining activity, including a Yindjibarndi male burial place, a walled-in enclave on a cliff face, and the mine site’s tailing dam, which the company built on top of a Yindjibarndi sacred site, flooding the area.

On Tuesday at Bangkangarra, an area the Yindjibarndi hold exclusive possession Native Title rights over, the Court heard from witnesses including YAC CEO Michael Woodley, lore man Angus Mack and elder Stanley Warrie.

The proceedings were opened by a traditional Yindjibarndi smoking ceremony, administered by locals and elders.

Elder Stanley Warrie testified and said the damage to his land from FMG’s mining was extremely upsetting. 

He told the court the experience felt like somebody was pulling his heart out, and he felt like his history and religion were being ripped up.