Mining Bosses Are Making Workers Decide Whether To Destroy Indigenous Heritage Sites

Workers for an explosives company in Australia can now refuse to work if they’re worried about damaging Indigenous heritage sites. But a year on from Rio Tinto, it’s hardly the change that needed to happen here.

In a change to the company’s “refusal to work” policy, employees and contractors of a mining and industrial explosives manufacturer, Dyno Nobel, can now choose not to blast an area if they think doing so might destroy sacred Indigenous sites.

Previously, workers could use the “refusal to work” policy if they felt blasting might have been a safety risk to themselves.

And while Dyno Nobel maintain that the policy was always meant to also cover the safety of Indigenous heritage sites, the company has now identified that the policy “could be clearer”. 

“Accordingly, the policy was reviewed and recently updated to explicitly include any instance where an employee believes an unacceptable risk is presented to Indigenous cultural heritage,” a spokesman from Incitec Pivot – Dyno Nobel’s parent company – told The Guardian. 

“We work hard to create a culture where our people know they will be supported if they speak up and refuse to work due to an unacceptable risk, including work that risks Indigenous cultural heritage.”

I know people at both Dyno and Orica who were pretty disgusted at the destruction of Juukan Gorge so this policy change is a big win.

— Calla Wahlquist (@callapilla) June 2, 2021

What Prompted The Change?

Dyno Nobel’s decision comes just a week after one of its main competitors, Orica, made a similar policy change.

James Fitzgerald, who was a native title lawyer for more than two decades, described the changes as “incredibly important.”

Last year, mining company Rio Tinto destroyed 46,0000-year-old Aboriginal caves at Juukan Gorge. Despite a parliamentary inquiry into the destruction, there is still no guarantee that this couldn’t happen again to another sacred site.

“So far there has been no convincing answer to, ‘How do you stop another Juukan Gorge happening?’” Fitzgerald said. “If people have got the ability to stand up to that kind of unbridled greed, it’s really important.”

The inquiry report into Juukan Gorge criticised the actions of Rio Tinto, and called for the Western Australian government to pause their system that allows the destruction or impact of registered Indigenous heritage sites.

But the WA government are refusing to commit to a temporary suspension of the current law until new Indigenous heritage laws come into parliament later this year.

“Effective, ingrained change is not going to be achieved if traditional owners are handed draft legislation which already has the assumptions and agendas of others imposed upon it,” said PKKP Aboriginal Corporation’s chief executive, Carol Meredith.

Should The Responsibility Fall To The Workers?

It goes without saying that any step forward in the protection of Indigenous heritage sites is, as Fitzgerald said, an “important” one.

But are these kind of company policy changes the right steps forward?

Because it feels a whole lot like they will shift a heavy responsibility onto workers, while the government and leaders of these mining companies continue to wash their hands of such an important issue.