Tiwi Islanders initially raised no objection to tapping the Barossa gasfield or the pipeline linking it to Darwin. Then the green lawyers rolled in with their academics-for-hire, persuaded a hanful of locals to rewrite their creation myths and stopped the project in its tracks. As the Federal Court has found, that campaign was a gigantic and cynical fraud
Court ruling is challenging for the Tiwi Islanders who fought the case and likely to prompt a rethink about how Indigenous cultural heritage matters are run
Scientist Mick O Leary bragged to worried Tiwi Islanders how he had stopped a massive Woodside Energy project by finding ancient proof of Aboriginal songlines - but his claims were a lie.
Climate geoscientist Michael O’Leary wanted to help Indigenous Australians stop a gas pipeline. A judge found he and other outside experts went too far.
A pervasive romanticism about Aboriginal culture is now widespread and underwrites an acceptance, even a belief, by many in the broader community of the sacredness of all aspects of what is presented as‘traditional’ Aboriginal culture and, specifically, of ‘sacred sites’. What isn't sacred apparently, is the notion that legal claims and filings have some basis in fact