"Rio Tinto accused of allowing irreplaceable Indigenous artefacts to be dumped in rubbish tip", 25 June 2021

Mining giant Rio Tinto has been accused of allowing hundreds of irreplaceable Indigenous cultural artefacts from the iron ore rich Pilbara region to be thrown away at a rubbish dump in Darwin, and failed to disclose the disposal to Aboriginal traditional owners for decades...

The Wintawari Guruma Aboriginal corporation says Easterm Guruma elders discovered their artefacts had “ended up in the bin” after obtaining documents which describe their “accidental, and then deliberate discarding and destruction”, which they say has never been disclosed to them by Rio Tinto...

Rio Tinto’s CEO, Simon Trott said the company is “not proud of its history” at Marandoo and is engaging with traditional owners to right “historical wrongs”. “We’re not proud of many parts of our history at Marandoo and we reiterate our apology to the Traditional Owners of the land, the Eastern Guruma People, for our past actions,” Trott said...

The WA government granted consent for the mine on 2 February 1992 under the Aboriginal Heritage Act – the same legislation which allowed Rio to blow up Juukan Gorge in May last year. But on 5 February 1992 ...passed a separate law, the Marandoo Act, which gave Rio additional security for the mine and effectively prevented any legal challenges from Aboriginal people...

Rio continues to operate under the Marandoo Act 1992, which is still in place nearly 30 years later. But now, in light of revelations about the disposal of their artefacts, the traditional owners say they want that legislation re-examined...

Rio Tinto’s CEO Simon Trott said Rio supports repealing the Marandoo Act 1992 and has been engaging with traditional owners and the WA government on this “important issue”...