Art Link: DANCING THE TRIPLE BOTTOM-LINE. Mining Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island culture, commun

DANCING THE TRIPLE BOTTOM-LINE.

Mining Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island culture, community and the arts.

Sam Cook

Mining and its relationship with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders has a long and complex history. Aboriginal people have been mining, then trading ochre and flint since time immemorial. Both resources were a necessary element in art and religious practices, as well as in the creation of stone implements and artefacts for use in hunting and gathering to ceremony and ritual. The more superior the quality of the deposits, the more highly they were prized by trading tribes. Indeed it is fair to say Aboriginal people are the true originators of the Australian mining industry.

The History of Aboriginal Mining

Mine ownership was by clans with a specialist group of miners within each group charged to collect the best from these tribal quarries. Mining techniques were predominantly open cut as evidenced in the Wilgie Mia Mine in Western Australia (WA). However there are some examples of underground practices including Koonalda Cave in South Australia (SA) where there is evidence of flint mining extending about 75 metres below the surface. Gender roles were differentiated and differed between various groups with Aboriginal women recorded as the specialist miners of the prized ochre near Mount Rowland Tasmania (TAS). Epic histories of trade appear in oral histories and western archives. There are accounts of tribes in the Northern Territory (NT) carrying 25 kg blocks of the Yarrakina ochre over distances of 1000 km on their return to country. There are other accounts where deposits of ochre from the West have been found along the Eastern seaboard.

In the 1800s and 1900s First Australians were actively pursuing their own mining interests. In October 1908 the discovery of tin ore by Alngindabu resulted in the tenement known as the Lucy Mine and in Yuendumu NT in the 1970s an Aboriginal-run copper mine was operated. Whilst these have been loosely documented in the annals of history, they are largely overshadowed by the master-narratives of the colonial era.

The role of the Torres Strait Islander (TSI) community in the mining industry also cannot be underestimated. This can be traced as far back as 1894 when gold was discovered on Horn Island and 6,000 ounces extracted, to the re-opening of mining operations over a 2-year period from 1988. Most significantly, Islanders were lured to the mainland where they contributed to building the artery and veins of regional mining interests to shipping ports and domestic carriers throughout Far North Queensland (FNQ) and WA. This back-breaking work was also of world importance. On 8 May 1968 in Mount Newman WA, a TSI railway crew completed 4.35 miles (approximately 7 kilometres) of track, breaking the previous world record of 2.88 miles (4.6 kilometres) set in the United States in 1962.

History of Conflict

A record of conflict that was predominant in the early 1900s came initially not through mining, but through the pastoral industry. Aboriginal workers who were often only paid in rations formed over half the pastoral labour force and were the backbone of the industry. By 1951 agriculture was one of Australia’s dominant sectors and accounted for just over 30 per cent of Australia's gross domestic product (GDP) with mining barely worthy of a mention. However in the 1950s, individuals such as Lang Hancock who ‘discovered’ the world's largest iron ore deposit in 1952 were responsible for a monumental shift. This moment marks the beginning of Australia’s agricultural barbarianism, one where the frontier mentality of its relationship with the Aboriginal community began a transition of sorts. Indeed Hancock, coming from one of WA’s oldest land-owning squatter families to the mining sector, was part of this transition. The notorious nature of figures such as Hancock and more recently Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest have left an indelible stain on relations. This is evident in the fact that the Aboriginal children whom he has sired have been denied any entitlement to his estate. However the extent of the depth of the damage is evident in his self-incriminatory statement made in a television interview in 1984;