You can support our Declaration by sharing on social media, or forwarding it to the leaders of the Queensland State and Federal Governments.
We have made our position clear – The Wangan and Jagalingou Nagana Yarrbayn Cultural Custodians are the common law possessory title holders of our ancestral lands and waters, including the Carmichael Mine site. We publicly oppose Adani’s Carmichael mine because of its devastating impacts on our Human Rights as the original custodians of the land — rights we claim without limits.
As the original First Peoples of the area known as the Carmichael mine, our continued sacred ceremony, called the Waddananggu, confirms our connection to Country and our presence is evidence that our rights and interests have never been abandoned, lost or signed away in any Indigenous land use or cultural heritage agreements, or mining lease.
An obligation is owed to us by Australian people and their governments to protect our rights and interests under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; and pursuant to the Queensland Human Rights Act 2019 while ever we are present at Waddananggu and performing cultural ceremonies.
Sacred sites located on the mining lease have been interfered with by the mining company Adani, causing damaging spiritual effects on our cultural values and beliefs. We will continue to remain vigilant while conducting our Waddananggu ceremony, ensuring that our religious and cultural observances are treated respectfully and in accordance with our cultural protocols.
We, along with other members of our community, will continue to assert that as First Peoples our rights to protect and conserve the land and environment, the waters and our natural and cultural resources, and to practice our laws and customs, must not be denied or limited.
We, the Wangan and Jagalingou Nagana Yarrbayn Cultural Custodians will use all means in our power to defend our rights and interests as First Peoples.
We, the Wangan and Jagalingou original custodians believe that damage to the integrity of our moiety dreaming will have catastrophic consequences for all people across this continent for all generations.
Our ancient connection, through to the present, endows us with the knowledge of our traditional ownership and of our distinct identity as Wangan & Jagalingou peoples – the Wirdi speaking people.
We stand in our rights and call upon the Australian people to demand of their governments that they recognise the original sovereignty in the land, the source of our laws and customs, and enter into treaties with us as the rightful custodians of Country.
We ask that all limitations of our rights, as a consequence of the legal entitlements granted to Adani, be removed and that restitution be made.
Adrian Burragubba
Senior Wangan & Jagalingou
Cultural Custodian
Date: 23 June 2022