Article by Paige Taylor, courtesy of The Australian.
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has cited a mural on a central NSW post office as proof of the existence of the blue-banded bee dreaming story, one of the central reasons she killed the Blayney goldmine proposal despite evidence from the local land council that the story is not Wiradjuri tradition.
The Environment Minister’s newly released reasons for blocking the billion-dollar project show the only issue she sided with a renegade anti-mine Indigenous group over was the highly contested blue-banded bee dreaming story at the Belubula River.
Ms Plibersek accepted the claim of the Wiradjuri Traditional Owner Central West Aboriginal Corporation that the dreaming story is part of Wiradjuri tradition. The WTOCWAC claimed the bee dreaming would historically be taught as part of pre-initiation ceremonies.
Referring to a mural at the Bathurst post office, Ms Plibersek wrote: “Information about a public artwork by Wiradjuri artist Baranga Wiradjuri, named the Blue Banded Bee Creation Story, was also submitted to support the validity of the dreaming as an Aboriginal tradition.”
“While not identical, the description of the artist’s interpretation of the dreaming is largely consistent with WTOCWAC’s explanation,” Ms Plibersek said.
The Orange land council has repeatedly claimed Ms Plibersek has been taken in by baseless claims. It disputed the claims about blue-banded bee dreaming in evidence to Ms Plibersek in February. The minister acknowledged the Orange land council submission by six representatives – five of whom identify as Wiradjuri – but rejected it.
“Regarding the (Orange land council) submissions disputing the existence of the dreaming, I considered this to be consistent with WTOCWAC’s submission that the dreaming is knowledge that is only passed to specific custodians in accordance with Aboriginal oral tradition,” she wrote.
“I was satisfied that, based on publicly available information and submissions made by WTOCWAC, the knowledge holder who passed down the knowledge of the dreaming was a prominent Wiradjuri elder who was recognised by the wider Bathurst community as such.
“I was satisfied that the passing down of the story was consistent with the way in which Aboriginal oral traditions and beliefs are often passed down throughout history.”
The Regis Resources goldmine proposal had cleared every state and commonwealth hurdle when Ms Plibersek in August declared a no-go zone over the approved site for the mine’s tailings dam.
She did so after considering an application, under rarely used Aboriginal heritage laws, by elder Nyree Reynolds, an artist who moved to Blayney about 40 years ago. Ms Reynolds had previously submitted her paintings of the Belubula River and surrounds to the NSW Independent Planning Commission as evidence of its significance to Wiradjuri people.
The paintings were submitted with captions including “The Wiradjuri are being driven out … again”. She included an essay against mining that said in part: “The ancestors who are leaving will turn around and come back should this land be saved from the ravages of mining.”
The Independent Planning Commission ruled in May 2023 that the mine could go ahead.
Ms Plibersek invoked rarely used Indigenous heritage laws for her last-minute intervention in the mine proposal.
Her reasons, published Friday, explain on which points she agrees with Ms Reynolds and the group supporting her, the Bathurst-based Wiradjuri traditional owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation.
Ms Plibersek rejected the Wiradjuri traditional owners corporation’s claim that the proposed mine site was of particular significance to Wiradjuri people because of culturally modified trees, sometimes called scar trees. The group had nominated a tree that was not on the site and “no detailed evidence was provided to explain how ancestral and culturally modified trees were connected to the specified area”.
She also did not support its claim the area was of particular significance to the Three Brothers dreaming story, and rejected the Wiradjuri traditional owners corporation claim it was of particular significance because of the presence of Aboriginal sites including camp ovens and stone tools “identified by supporting parties”.
The nature and significance of artefact “scatters” in the area have been repeatedly questioned by the Orange land council, which claims a “camp oven” was nothing more than cinders a farmer claimed to have ploughed over decades ago.
Ms Plibersek also did not support a claim by the mine opponents that the area was of special significance to Wiradjuri people because of connections to Aboriginal peoples past, ruling “the information … was general in nature and only demonstrated the historical occupation of the specified area and broader landscape”.