A beautiful story of archaeologist Ken Mulvaney's passion for the protection of an ancient cultural heritage in the form of rock art petroglyphs. From ABC Open Pilbara produced by ABC Open producer for the Pilbara Susan Standen
The Greens WA spokesperson for Aboriginal Affairs, Robin Chapple MLC has expressed concern at Minister Collier’s statement that The Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage: Key Indicators 2014 report showed many improvements because of decisions the State Government had made.
“Although the report shows some improvements in some areas, such as economic and health outcomes, it also states the improvements have slowed in recent years,” Mr Chapple explained.
“Whilst it is great to see the Barnett Government patting itself on the back for the decisions it has made, claiming it has led to more positive outcomes for our Aboriginal community, what about the lack of improvement in literacy and numeracy and the relatively high rates of family and community violence, and chronic disease and disability?
“It is also distressing that we seem to have gone backwards in the area of mental health with hospitalisation for intentional self-harm increasing by almost 50%; adult imprisonment rate increasing by over 50%; and juvenile detention increasing sharply.
“I implore Minister Collier to get his head out of the sand and get this government to start tackling these issues.
“On the issue of Premier Barnett’s plans to close between 100 and 150 of the 274 remote communities in WA, I urge this government to leave people in their communities and provide essential services or is this in the too hard basket?”
For more information please contact Robin Chapple on 0409 379 263 or 9486 8255.
WA Greens Member for the Mining and Pastoral Region Robin Chapple MLC has expressed outrage at Premier Colin Barnett’s statement that remote indigenous communities would be closed due to difficulties in providing essential services.
Mr Barnett also linked high indigenous suicide rates with remote access problems and claimed his government was actively working to try and reduce these statistics.
Mr Chapple said the Premier could not be more out of touch with the needs of remote indigenous communities.
“This is short-sighted economic bean-counting at its absolute worst,” he said.
“By forcing indigenous people out of their communities and into towns and cities you are essentially taking away nearly everything they hold dear.
“I am not talking about material possessions, but their connection with the land, their culture and their ancestors that is so important.
Mr Chapple said it was the height of insensitivity for the Premier to bring in the issue of indigenous suicides whilst simultaneously admitting that the forced closure of remote communities ‘would be traumatic’.
“Who wouldn’t be traumatised if the government walked onto your land and physically removed you against your will?” he said.
“I agree with the Premier that something needs to be done about the provision of services to remote indigenous communities, so why doesn’t he just get on and do it!.
“Moving people from their homes into much larger and unfamiliar settlements and suggesting this may actually reduce the suicide rate amongst indigenous people in Western Australia is absolutely farcical and may very well have the opposite effect.”
For more information please contact Robin Chapple on 0409 379 263 or 9486 8255.
WA Greens Member for the Mining and Pastoral Region and long-time Burrup activist Robin Chapple MLC has welcomed the relocation of more than 1700 pieces of Aboriginal rock art that were dumped to make way for Woodside’s North West Shelf LNG project.
The rock art, which is considered highly significant, had been kept in a Pilbara compound since the early 1980s until the relocation process was initiated in 2009 by the elders from the four groups.
Mr Chapple said the inclusion of local Aboriginal elders in the relocation and restoration process contributed strongly to the successful outcome.
“This was an important step by Woodside in recognising and remediating some of the past wrongs done in the Burrup and I congratulate them for that,” he said.
“The Burrup Peninsula is home to the world’s largest, and oldest, collection of Aboriginal rock art with some of the paintings and carvings dating back more than 30,000 years.
“The cultural significance of rock art here cannot be overstated and I’m glad it’s finally starting to get the recognition, and respect, it deserves.”
Mr Chapple said he hoped restoration projects such as this didn’t encourage further development on the culturally significant Burrup Peninsula.
“Whilst this is a brilliant outcome for the local Aboriginal people, for the Burrup and for Aboriginal heritage in general there needs to be greater recognition that this place is too special to plunder,” he said.
“Currently, only about 44 per cent of the peninsula is protected by Murujuga National Park which, upon its creation in January last year, felt like somewhat of a token gesture.
“I would appeal again to governments state and federal, as I have many times in the past, to make World Heritage Listing of the Burrup Peninsula and Dampier Archipelago a priority of national and international significance.”
For more information please contact Robin Chapple on 0409 379 263 or 9486 8255.
Two months ago I called for a public enquiry into the death in custody of the 22-year old Yamatji woman in the South Hedland police lock up.
Ms Dhu was arrested on August 2 for unpaid fines and transferred to the South Hedland watch-house where despite vomiting, worsening pain and two hospital visits she remained incarcerated for more than two days until she was finally taken to Hedland Health Campus for a third time, we now know not breathing and with no pulse.
I have constantly said the government should be doing everything in is power to figure out why this tragedy happened, and why similar tragedies continue to happen within the custodial system across our state.
It is now known that despite Acting Police Commissioner Lawrence Panaia saying that in most cases when an inmate was ill they should be transported to a hospital by ambulance the young woman was put in the back of a paddy wagon each time, even when on the last occasion she was not breathing and with no pulse.
We need to get to the bottom of this and I again call for the government to initiate a full enquiry, we need the whole process to be open and quickly investigated.
· Why was she sent back from the hospital to the lock up on two occasions, when the coroner’s report shows she had serious medical conditions?
· Why was the family not advised of her condition by the police, they may have been able to intercede and save the young woman?
· Why the police used a paddy wagon for transporting this critically ill young woman?
· Why had the young woman condition been allowed to deteriorate to the stage of unconsciousness before final presentation to the hospital?
“Whatever happened to duty of care? Primarily both of these services exist in the interest of public safety so clearly there is a very serious flaw in the system.”
Mr Chapple said a public inquiry was only the first step in resolving a long-standing, and deepening, mistrust between Aboriginal communities and state services.
“Now, more than ever, we need to make sure that this sort of thing never happens again,” he said.
“We need to take another serious look at those recommendations that have come out of other incidents such as this, especially the death of John Pat in 1983 in Roebourne and more recently the tragic death of Mr Ward in the back of a prison van.
“The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody finalised on the 15 April 1991 made 339 recommendations for improvement in custodial processes most of which have not been implemented.
“Incarcerating Aboriginal people, and indeed anyone, for such minor offences as an unpaid fine solves absolutely nothing, and generally costs more than the fine itself is worth; it should not be an option.”
For more information please contact Robin Chapple on 0409 379 263 or 9486 8255
