The Wunna Nyiyaparli people of Western Australia’s eastern Pilbara region are being shafted by the federal government to placate mining interests. Labor is defying a UN Human Rights Committee (CCPR) order in mid-2023 to provide them with “an effective and enforceable remedy”.

Wunna Nyiyaparli elder Ailsa Roy began the process of challenging the legitimacy of mining operations on Country, via the National Native Title Tribunal in 2012, which led to a Federal Court hearing in 2016. That found that the Wunna Nyiyaparli have no native title claim as they are not a people separate from the broader Nyiyaparli language group, despite evidence to the contrary.

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The Wunna Nyiyaparli continue to live largely in accordance with their traditional laws: their culture is inextricably linked to Country. Their ability to live, hunt and fish on Country is essential to their preservation as a people.

Yet, mining corporations have blocked the Wunna Nyiyaparli access to Country; they are being threatened with trespass.

As Wunna Nyiyaparli ways of being have been intimately linked to Wunna Nyiyaparli Country for tens of thousands of years, breaking this relationship threatens the very existence of the Wunna Nyiyaparli people.

Roy is continuing to campaign for her people’s rights, 20 months since the CCPR provided the Australian Attorney General’s Department with 180 days to rectify the situation. She stresses that her people have been “defrauded and denied justice” in respect of their “economic base” and all the chief lawmaker has done is write to the UN to deny the validity of its findings.

“Irrespective of the Australian........

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