Nagana Yarrbayn Wangan & Jagalingou Cultural Custodains
MEDIA RELEASE
Monday 18th August 2025
Members of the Nagana Yarrbayn Wangan & Jagalingou Cultural Custodians have lodged two Federal Court applications against Adani’s Bravus Mining alleging serious racial discrimination and vilification, following a decade-long attack on their right to maintain cultural authority over their Country.
The applications, filed after the Australian Human Rights Commission terminated conciliation efforts in June, are the latest in the unrelenting resistance of the Cultural Custodians of the Doongmabulla Springs to the Carmichael Coal Mine.
“Like Being Under the Aboriginal Protection Act Again”
Senior Nagana Yarrbayn Cultural Custodian Adrian Burragubba says Adani’s systematic campaign to undermine his clan’s cultural authority represents a continuation of colonial oppression.
“People who want to take our ancestral lands and resources are still trying to control us. Only this time it’s a private mining company that thinks it can define who is Aboriginal and what being Aboriginal means. It’s like Bravus has replaced the government as the Chief Protector of Aboriginal people – it’s like being under the Aboriginal Protection Act again,” Burragubba said.
Sacred Springs Ceremony Blocked: “You People Are Not Allowed”
The first application centers on Bravus employees physically blocking Traditional Owners from accessing sacred Doongmabulla Springs in August 2023 and threatening them with trespass and police enforcement while they sought to perform important cultural ceremonies for their newborn children – despite the ceremony site being on property not owned by Adani.
“Bravus operatives blocked us saying ‘you people are not allowed in here’. As Aboriginal people, we knew what ‘you people’ meant when they said it – we have lived with this kind of racism all our lives” Burragubba said. “Being forcefully restricted at the gate reminded me of what my father and grandfather had to endure under the Act. I felt the same trauma my father must have experienced when being forcefully removed from his homelands.”
Systematic Vilification Campaign
The second application seeks redress and an apology for an alleged vilification campaign that has seriously impacted 30 years of cultural development work and driven family divisions.
“Adani has politicised and traduced us in the community, undermining thirty years of our work building our cultural integrity and sharing our culture. It has falsely painted me and my family as anti-coal protestors and as patsies for the green groups,” Burragubba revealed.
“We have provided evidence to the Federal Court that Adani incited and promoted racial hatred towards us, on top of the immeasurable intergenerational harm we have suffered. Adani makes us afraid to be Aboriginal in our own country.”
Fighting for Recognition
Despite Adani’s ongoing negative media campaign against them, the Cultural Custodians continue asserting their rights to prevent destruction of their significant sacred sites, maintaining the Waddananggu cultural ceremony site for four years unbroken.
“We will not be silenced or pushed aside,” Burragubba said. “This is about our fundamental right to be recognised and respected as Aboriginal people in our homelands, while asserting our cultural authority over Country and managing our own clan estates.”
The case seeks damages potentially exceeding $4.8 million, along with declarations of unlawful discrimination, injunctions, public apologies, and mandatory anti-racism training for Bravus executives.
Supreme Court Case heats up
The Cultural Custodians are simultaneously fighting both a Queensland Supreme Court case and an Appeal in the Court of Appeal, with the State’s Attorney-General and Queensland Human Rights Commission recently intervening.
In June 2025, Justice Burns ruled the Cultural Custodians’ application to the Supreme Court – for a declaration that the government’s refusal to take action to protect sacred sites is unlawful under the Queensland Human Rights Act and Environmental Protection Act – could proceed to a full hearing. This is a groundbreaking win that opened a new legal pathway to enforce cultural rights when statutory judicial review is not available.
The Government acknowledged that the Springs have “exceptional ecological value”, and “spiritual significance” to Traditional Owners, and that the cultural custodians have obligations under “First Law” to protect them.
“The Queensland Government is now desperately appealing this decision, trying to prevent the cultural custodians from enforcing our cultural rights in the courts”, Burragubba says.
“We’ve established that our cultural rights are legally recognisable and that government inaction may be unlawful on that basis. They took our power and authority to protect Country away when they granted the mine’s environmental authority. Now we’re fighting for the right to ensure that the Minister actually does act when sacred sites face irreversible harm,” Burragubba explained.
Available for interview: Adrian Burragubba – Senior Nagana Yarrban W&J Cultural Custodian
Contact: Anthony Esposito: 0418 152 743 | info@wanganjagalingou.com.au
Background: Case Summaries
Application 1: Discrimination at Doongmabulla Springs (s.9 Racial Discrimination Act 1975) Applicants: Adrian Burragubba and four others vs Adani Mining Pty Ltd
On August 26, 2023, applicants traveling to sacred Doongmabulla Springs for cultural ceremonies were blocked by Bravus employees who threatened police charges despite being told the group was exercising cultural rights under Queensland’s Human Rights Act. Seeks damages , injunction, and public apology.
Application 2: Racial Vilification (s.18C Racial Discrimination Act 1975)
Applicant: Coedie McAvoy (representing up to 30 group members) vs Adani Mining Pty Ltd
Between December 2022-September 2023, Bravus published statements characterizing applicants as “anti-coal activists” and “sovereign citizens,” questioning their cultural legitimacy.. The publications appeared on Bravus websites and social media. The group has peacefully occupied the Waddananggu Cultural Ceremony Site since August 2021 for cultural and spiritual purposes. Seeks damages, injunction, corrections, and public apology.