The Millera people in New South Wales are struggling to protect their ancestral lands and culture from devastation by Ross Mining's gold mine. They have presented the first native title case concerning mining, rather than pastoral leases. KATHY KUM-SING spoke to ZOHL de ISHTAR about the campaign to stop the mine.
"Millera country is Gold Dreaming and we, the Millera people, are the children of the Gold Dreaming", said Kum-Sing, a Millera woman. The Millera people have vowed to stop the mining of their ancestral land on the Timbarra (Millera) plateau in northern NSW, near Grafton.
Ross Mining and the NSW Aboriginal Land Council have brokered a $1.3 million agreement with a Bundjalung corporation which would allow mining.
The corporation received $50,000 on signing the contract and will receive the balance over the next five years. This money has been allocated to providing the Bundjalung people with services including education, training, employment and community works — services which some might think should be an automatic right of all citizens.
Because the mine will destroy major sacred sites, the Millera people — traditional custodians of the area — have refused to give their permission to the project and are challenging Ross Mining in the courts. They insist that the contract is not valid. They argue that the party that signed was not qualified to do so alone.
"Instead of contacting all the blood groups and all the traditional owners of the country, Ross Mining and the state Land Council Native Title Unit contacted a select few. Under the false supposition that Millera was of limited sacred significance, the legal representatives from the native title unit engineered an agreement about mining on our land without reference to us, the direct bloodline.
"The particular Aboriginal people the unit relied on do not come from the direct bloodline and therefore do not have the right to negotiate on behalf of the traditional owners. You've got to be from an area to negotiate on it", Kum-Sing explained.
Kum-Sing says that there is no animosity against the individuals involved. "They are a really respected group of Aboriginal people. Some of them are my relations, but that doesn't mean that they hold the same stories and connection.
"We come from the grandmother's blood line. The Millera are a matrilineal nation ... Custodianship is with women and men, but women hold grandmother's law through the direct bloodline ... Whilst equally acknowledging all family members and their dreamings and totems to Millera, it's my responsibility as a Millera daughter to speak out on this", Kum-Sing said.
The mining project threatens the entire Bold Top Mountain area and would pollute the Clarence River. This would affect not only Aboriginal people but also farmers and other residents of the Clarence River area. Kum-Sings says, "To let this happen would be to agree with destroying the northern waterways and the river and stream systems".
The Timbarra Protection Coalition is concerned that mining by-products, arsenic and cyanide (up to 4000 tonnes) would end up in the ground water.
More than an environmental issue, the proposed mine is an attack on the Millera people, their land and identity, argues Kum-Sing.
"Millera is sacred to us as a people ... To mine Millera is to totally kill our spirit ... everything we believe in. It is to cease our existence as a people. We have lost enough without losing any more, especially our dreaming and sacred sites, especially those that are of particular strength to women."
The contract has been heralded as a milestone: the first native title agreement between a mining company and Aboriginal people in NSW. Kum-Sing looks at it differently.
"In Wik we looked at pastoral leases and did battle over that, but this will be a challenge in terms of mineral wealth.
"Native title, if done properly, could give people the opportunity to connect to their blood groups and retain the connection to their land. But this claim is undermining the spirit of native title and the rights of traditional owners. People should really look at this for what it is. Maybe they'll see through the lies and see what the government really is doing to our people under the guise of 'reconciliation' in 1997. This isn't reconciliation. This is extinguishment. This is about genocide."
"But we are not extinguished", she continues. "We are very much alive and we are very strong. We still practise our belief. The government is not going to get extinguishment out of the Millera people."
The Millera are desperately in need of financial assistance. They receive no funding from the authorities and depend on the good will of supporters. If you can offer a donation or help in any way, please contact the Millera Campaign, c/- PO Box 172, Annandale NSW 2038, or e-mail to