" Australia continues to deny existence of Wunna Nyiyaparli, despite UN order" 28 March 2025

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”...

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.

Wunna Nyiyaparli elder Ailsa Roy began the process of challenging the legitimacy of mining operations on Country, via the National Native Title Tribunal (NNTT) in 2012...

“Irrespective of the Australian Attorney General’s response to the United Nations, the Wunna Nyiyaparli people have rights,” Roy said. “We have a history and we remain an oppressed people denied our land base and self-determination.”...

These lands are rich in iron ore and Rinehart’s Roy Hill mine almost tripled its dividends over the 2023–24 financial year.

“Fortescue and Hancock failed to negotiate with certainty the right people for right country, which makes mining on our sovereign land illegal, as it is against the law to profit from stolen property,” Roy said....

“The Wunna Nyiyaparli people were recognised as having exclusive rights over the Roy Hill area and never signed away those rights,” Roy said. “We have been prevented from accessing Country … while watching others get rich from our land.”

“We have been subjected to an exhaustive and humiliating legal process. Our sovereign rights predate Native Title, but the Wunna Nyiyaparli are unable to camp, fish and carry out cultural business on Country, nor can we grant leases, licenses or borrow any money against our lands.”...

“We feel cheated, defrauded, disappointed, disgusted, denied, disrespected, demoralised, disenfranchised and discarded,” Roy said.