For Indigenous Australians, the Juukan Gorge caves in the Pilbara region of Western Australia were a significant cultural site, which indicated human habitation 46,000 years ago. That is around 44,000 years before the birth of Christ. For Christians, the dawning of humanity.
Rio Tinto's wilful destruction of the Juukan caves has appropriately refocused Australians' attention on corporate social responsibility. Corporate social responsibility represents a company's moral obligation and commitment to manage responsibly the social, environmental and economic effects of its operations, and in accordance with community standards and public expectations. Agencies, either big or small, private or public, have an obligation to conduct their businesses ethically. Ethics is about doing what is right, fair, just or good; what we ought to do rather than what is most expedient (Freegard and Isted, 2012).
Irrespective of party politics, Australia has a long history of disturbing, damaging, devastating and destroying ancient Aboriginal sites that are culturally significant.
Ongoing obliteration of culturally significant sites Down Under raises the question: Do Aboriginals really matter to corporate Australia? Indeed, the fiction of terra nullius that Australia was nobody's land when Britain claimed sovereignty in 1788, was enshrined in Australian law until the High Court's Mabo judgement in 1992. Destroying world heritage sites is unacceptable, irrespective of whether those actions are undertaken by the Taliban (Afghanistan), ISIS (Syria and Iraq) or Rio Tinto in Australia.
Culture reflects those thoughts, values, traditions and practices shared by a group of people. It provides security, integrity, cohesion and a sense that I belong. This is me, my mob, here I am. Culture exists irrespective of age, religion, sexuality, ethnicity, gender, ability or by any other basis.
Corporate leaders are privileged members of society for which much is bestowed yet also expected. It is not enough for Rio Tinto to say sorry for its actions and remove several of its senior executives. Rio Tinto has an ethical obligation to engage in genuine dialogue with the traditional owners of the land upon which the Juukan caves formerly existed. Can the rupture be repaired? That is for indigenous Australians to decide.
This week Australians proudly remembered that 20 years ago Cathy Freeman lit the Olympic flame in Sydney. Culture matters, as does the respectful remembrance of those who came before us, irrespective of their race, colour, creed, standing or existence in time.
Dr Michael Walton is a Lambton psychologist
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