Mining Company Cries 'Improper Process' Over Sacred Site Protection
Regis Resources is challenging a federal heritage protection order, arguing the environment minister didn't 'properly assess a Dreaming story' related to a planned tailings dam (Guardian World). This rings eerily familiar to the Juukan Gorge destruction in 2020 where Rio Tinto blew up 46,000-year-old sacred sites, despite Aboriginal objections, citing 'miscommunication.' It begs the question: is
it ever about proper process, or just the inconvenience of Indigenous rights interrupting resource extraction? One might wonder how many 'improper processes' are acceptable when the 'process' involves bulldozing millennia of culture for momentary profit. Apparently, the sanctity of a goldmine’s development always trumps the sanctity of a people's spiritual connection to land. (What's sacred when
there's gold underneath, anyway?)