Australian Indigenous leaders learn from tar sands battle

Delegates from two Indigenous tribes fighting the development of the world’s second-largest coal mine on ancestral lands in Australia recently met with northern First Nations’ leaders in Alberta to discuss similar struggles against oil sands development. The $16.5-billion Carmichael coal mine, proposed by Indian conglomerate Adani, would bring roads; a new town with coal-fired electricity; a fly-in, fly-out workforce; and a rail line to the ancestral lands of the Wangan and Jagalingou people in central Queensland in northeast Australia. The company’s offer of compensation for loss of property has been turned down by the tribes. “We’re fighting the same issues, fighting the same people, fighting the same companies, fighting the fossil fuel industry, fighting our governments to say this is not ok. We will not consent. We have not consented. And our right to either give or withhold consent is being oppressed,” Australian Indigenous leader Murrawah Johnson, who represented the youth of the Wangan and Jagalingou tribes, told APTN News.