Reconciliation and Social Justice Library

REBUTTING THE MYTHS - MYTH: ABORIGINAL SACRED SITES AND DEVELOPMENT

Any major development proposal must satisfy certain criteria under State and/or Commonwealth legislation. Depending on the individual proposal, these criteria may include assessment on Aboriginal heritage, environmental and/or national heritage grounds.

Since 1984 when legislation was passed by the Federal Parliament to protect Aboriginal heritage:

· 94 applications have been lodged under the Commonwealth's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984;

· there have been two declarations under the Act relating to the protection of objects of significance to Aboriginal people;

· there have been three temporary declarations relating to Aboriginal sites;

· there has been one declaration for the protection of a site for a period of 20 years; and

· the legislation has never been used to stop a mining project.

Aboriginal law restricts detailed knowledge of sacred sites to particular people who are responsible for particular sites. Knowledge of sacred sites is, by definition, not public knowledge.

Aboriginal people's spiritual and religious beliefs should be accorded the same respect as the beliefs of any other Australians.

The spiritual beliefs of Aboriginal people are often subject to public ridicule in a manner which would never be tolerated if it were directed at the spiritual beliefs of non-Aboriginal Australians.

Sources:

Central Land Council Annual Report 1990-91.

Our Land, Our Life: Aboriginal land rights in the Northern Territory, Central and Northern Land Councils, 1991. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984 (Cwth).