High-quality, high-resolution photos and vision of Raelene Cooper at the North West Shelf facility and its impacts on Murujuga rock art is available here (credit: Save our Songlines)
Responding to the WA government’s approval for a 50-year North West Shelf extension to enable Woodside’s Burrup Hub to expand until 2070, Mardudhunera woman Raelene Cooper said:
“This is such a special place and it is really unbelievable to me that Woodside is allowed to destroy it. Murjuga is my country and it holds my songlines - the rock art is sacred to my people. This project is going to wreck all that with toxic emissions if the government let them. Tanya Plibersek is supposed to be the Water and Environment Minister. She must not allow Woodside to keep pumping out their acid gas all over my cultural heritage until 2070 - or it will all be gone.
“My family’s stories are carved in the rocks at Murujuga, but Woodside isn’t just threatening our cultural heritage - they’re threatening our living songlines and environment.
Woodside is getting Browse gas to feed the Burrup Hub from under a pristine coral reef that endangered sea snakes, whales and turtles rely on for their habitat. Woodside’s Burrup Hub extension threatens all of that, as well as the rock art right here.
“Once the toxic gas has eroded our sacred sites, the knowledge and identity of who we are as traditional custodians will be lost and gone forever. It saddens me, and it makes me angry. But this isn’t just about the survival of my culture, it’s about the survival of all people. The same toxic gas destroying my rock art is also causing destruction for our planet. It is heartbreaking that any government would allow this to continue.
“Murujuga is a healing place. This rock art is tens of thousands of years old. It could be wiped out within decades if Woodside’s Burrup Hub gets the go-ahead. We belong to this place, and Woodside is destroying it in front of our eyes. I am fighting Woodside for my old people and my family. What sort of legacy does Tanya Plibersek want to leave for her own children? We won’t allow irreversible damage to our sacred sites. North West Shelf until 2070 would be Woodside and government-supported genocide.”
Murujuga traditional custodian Raelene Cooper is a Mardudhunera woman and former Chair of the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation. Ms Cooper is awaiting the outcome of her Section 10 application to the federal government for a full cultural heritage assessment of the industrial impacts of Woodside’s Burrup Hub on the UNESCO World Heritage-nominated Murujuga rock art. Ms Cooper was an appellant in the WA government’s North West Shelf approval process.
ENDS
High-quality, high-resolution photos and vision of the North West Shelf facility and its impacts on Murujuga rock art is available here (all images credit: Save our Songlines)
For all media enquiries please contact:
Jesse Noakes
Media and Comms Advisor
Save our Songlines
0401 233 965
Contact details:
Jesse Noakes
0401 233 965
