Proponents have a responsibility to respect and protect First Nations cultural heritage.
Committing to protect, reinforce and embed the preservation of cultural heritage into the planning, construction and operation of clean energy projects will build trusting relationships and enhance a project’s social licence.
It’s also a statutory requirement: before large-scale projects can be established, proponents must ensure their projects don’t have an adverse effect on cultural heritage.
First Nations cultural heritage tells the story of 65,000 years of living culture and history in Australia.
Cultural heritage is not static and not just tangible and historic. There are thousands of places of cultural importance including landscapes, water resources, carvings, rock art, tools, buildings, architecture, monuments, industrial structures, technology, buried deposits, archeological sites, artefacts and resources, and a continuous rich history of music and dance, stories, language, performance, digital heritage, customary practices, rituals and ceremonies. Cultural heritage includes these tangible and intangible assets and the need to ensure their protection for present and future generations.
The well documented destruction of 46,000 year old caves at Western Australia’s Juukan Gorge by Rio Tinto has increased the emphasis placed on the protection and preservation of both tangible and intangible First Nations cultural heritage in Australia, as current legislative standards are not sufficient.
Whether or not native title exists, processes required for the protection of cultural heritage can exist on an area, regardless of the land/sea tenure.
Proponents are advised to go a step beyond and develop robust and legally binding agreements with impacted First Nations enabling Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) processes to ensure cultural heritage is protected and safeguarded across the project lifecycle.
The First Nations Heritage Protection Alliance has produced two guides to assist proponents in engaging with First Nations in a way that protects and respects cultural heritage and enables the right to FPIC. This is an opportunity for the private sector to go beyond legislative standards and actively contribute to First Nations cultural heritage in Australia. The Alliance have also produced a Self–Assessment Tool for Businesses for businesses ‘to identify opportunities to strengthen their capacity to work alongside First Nations peoples in the protection and celebration of First Nations cultural heritage; and uphold the human rights of First Nations people, including the right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent.’