Native title claimants near Kalgoorlie have spoken out over the potential loss of more historic Aboriginal sites in Western Australia.
The outcry comes in the wake of the legal destruction of ancient Aboriginal sites is the Pilbara, but in this case the mining company involved denies important sites exist.
Kado Muir is a traditional owner and anthropologist who has also been a member of WA's Aboriginal Cultural and Materials Committee, which was was established as part of the Aboriginal Heritage Act.
Mr Muir said the heritage protection system is "broken" and raised concerns about the possible destruction of sites he had a personal connection to.
"The original intent of the Aboriginal Heritage Act was to protect both tangible and intangible heritage in Western Australia," he said.
"Unfortunately, it's become a development approval process that's just steamrolling the destruction of Aboriginal sites."
'Divide and rule'
On Tuesday the committee met to consider an application by mining company Australian Potash to develop a mine near the Goldfields town of Laverton.
The area is currently under the Waturta native title claim and Mr Muir, a Ngalia man, is one of the claimants.
Mr Muir said Australian Potash had not engaged with the Waturta native title claimants to carry out Aboriginal heritage consultations.
"We invited Australian Potash to come and talk to us on a number of occasions, particularly because Lake Wells, the lake the company seeks to extract potash from is a site of significance to us," he said.
He also said he believed the mining company was trying to "divide and rule".
"They're trying to set up a group because they don't like to engage with us," he said.
"So they're going to talk to other people who don't have any legal standing."
Mining company denies sites exist
Australian Potash chief executive Matt Shackleton said the company was in dialogue with the relevant traditional elders, but declined to name them.
He also said there were no important sites in the proposed development area.
"So far there have not been any sites identified by legitimate knowledge holders in the area of our proposed development," he said.
"We have conducted four heritage surveys involving traditional senior Wati [a western desert word for 'man'] and legitimate anthropologists on site to date.
"This has been reinforced by findings by the Aboriginal Cultural Materials Committee."
The Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage said the committee was aware of past surveys and confirmed no registered Aboriginal sites were included in the area identified in the application.
But a department spokesperson said the role of the committee is to determine consent for activities that may impact places that could be considered as an Aboriginal site.
According to the department, the committee decided to defer consideration of Australian Potash's application and a final decision is yet to be made.
Calls for urgent reform
Mr Muir is calling for urgent reform to the Aboriginal Heritage Act and more transparency around Indigenous Land Use Agreements (ILUA).
The WA Government is currently reviewing the Act, including the controversial section 18, which can legalise the destruction of Aboriginal sites.
"Indigenous Land Use Agreements take away their [traditional owners] ability to have a say over heritage protection to the extent they can't veto it," Mr Muir said.
ILUAs, which according to the Native Title Tribunal are binding contracts between a native title group and other parties over land and water use, are part of the native title act.
He believes they are problematic because they are a contractual arrangement entered into under an unequal power relationship between enormous companies and "impoverished" traditional owners.
Mr Muir said because they involve compensation, there's an expectation people will "maintain their silence as companies go on to destroy their culture and their heritage."
