Murujuga traditional owner accuses UNESCO of silencing, intimidating her in Paris

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A Murujuga traditional owner claims a UNESCO committee silenced and intimidated her delegation which was lobbying against the removal of industrial emissions protections in the rock art’s World Heritage Listing.

Raelene Cooper travelled to Paris with a small group from her Save Our Songlines group to persuade World Heritage Committee members to retain restrictions on industrial emissions near the Murujuga rock art contained in a draft decision considered at its meeting in Paris on Friday.

Save our Songlines convenor Raelene Cooper at the UNESCO World Heritage Committee 47th session in Paris.

Those conditions, which would apply to projects like Woodside’s North West Shelf and Burrup Hub assets, were scratched from the final decision in an amendment moved by committee member Kenya, and supported by the majority of the committee.

Cooper wrote to World Heritage Centre director Lazare Eloundou Assomo on Sunday to complain about the treatment of her group.

She claimed UNESCO staff blocked her group from entering the chamber floor on the day of the Murujuga vote, ignored requests to address the committee, and assigned an intimidating level of security to the Save Our Songlines representatives.

Cooper was granted observer status and was able to lobby member countries on the floor of the committee meeting on Wednesday and Thursday last week, but said on the day of the vote her team was prevented from entering the chamber.

The former Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation chair said representatives from the Australian government and current MAC members were still allowed on the chamber floor and to address the committee following the vote.

“Had I been able to address the committee regarding the Murujuga inscription, I would have been able to express my profound joy at the successful inscription, and my congratulation [sic] to every member of the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation on a momentous day for our people achieving such recognition,” Cooper said in her letter.

“Instead, I was prevented from doing so. I wish to formally communicate my view that this was deliberate and politically motivated. In my view, our delegation was targeted due to our position about the ongoing industrial pollution affecting Murujuga’s sacred rock art.”

Cooper and Save Our Songlines first requested consent to address the committee on Thursday and followed up twice on Friday, including as the Murujuga nomination was being debated, but received no reply.

World Heritage Committee meeting rules allow for observers and representatives of related parties to address the committee as their item comes up, with the consent of the chairperson.

“As well as celebrating the inscription of Murujuga onto the World Heritage List, if permitted to speak I would have also expressed the opposition of many Murujuga traditional custodians to ongoing industrial expansion and the divisive and damaging role of government in supporting it,” Cooper said.

Cooper also claimed her group was subject to an increased security presence which followed her delegation on the day of the vote.

“When I walked into the garden at the rear of the property, I observed multiple security staff following and observing me, stationing themselves near our delegation and then following as we left and re-entered the building,” she said.

“It caused a significant degree of intimidation to members of our delegation, many of whom are First Nations people who have a heightened experience of police harassment and intimidation in our own country, which has been exacerbated by our campaign to protect Murujuga from the powerful gas industry and their supporters in government.”

A UNESCO spokeswoman said due to time constraints and as per usual practice, the committee allowed for all observers and non-government organisations to address the committee after all the nominations were completed, which happened on July 13.

“Several NGOs took the floor at that time, and we regret that Save our Songlines was not present in the room then,” she said.

The spokeswoman said UNESCO was sorry to hear Cooper felt intimidates, but the level of security was normal for the event.

“With over 1500 participants per day, UNESCO has applied a normal level of security to allow for smooth conduct of debates. To our knowledge, all the members of her NGO were able to attend all the committee’s debates, as well as side events, and visit freely all UNESCO’s premises,” she said.

There are more than a million petroglyphs carved onto rocks at Murujuga on the Burrup Peninsula near Karratha in WA’s Pilbara coast.

Some petroglyphs are more than 45,000 years old, and it is believed Murujuga contains the first known depiction of a human face.

Its listing makes it Australia’s 21st World Heritage site alongside the Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu and Uluru.