Chapter 2

In the morning, the third parliamentary representative (who wasn’t from WA) presented the government’s view: there had been a terrible injustice, the intent of the Act must be adhered to, the legalistic twisting of contracts must cease, the Aborigines should be encouraged to preserve their culture. Oh yes, reparation must be made. For a politician, he was quite brief.

Patrick was again seated beside Hammond. He leaned over: “Play nicely, children.”

“Note that I wasn’t asked to speak,” she whispered.

After a break, the chair asked Patrick whether he thought he could make some remarks this afternoon or whether he would prefer to wait till the next day?

“This afternoon will do. The general direction of my thoughts is clear and this group will report, not decide.”

“Very well. Adjourn till two.”

“I’m going to make some notes.”

“If you’ll lunch with me again, I can meet you here in, say, an hour?”

“That should be adequate.”

Patrick wrote out a few points. Stared at them. Reordered them and rewrote the page. He folded the original and stowed it in his case. The new sheet went into his inside pocket.

He enjoyed lunch. Hammond had taught law at UWA in the 1990s and many of her anecdotes dovetailed with what Patrick had heard as a child. She had then moved to the new School of Law in Fremantle till the previous year. Patrick told her of his varied legal education. They returned to the meeting room in good time.

Called upon, Patrick stood. “I will have a full report and suggestions in due course,” he began. “But I believe that I can already present the tenor of my brief.

“First, the PKKP have lived in the Pilbara for nearly fifty thousand years, and though the land may seem arid and hostile, it preserves the image and the physical and spiritual relics of the people.

“Second, though several agreements were signed by the PKKP and Rio Tinto, the Western Australia Aboriginal Heritage Act does not give the People the ability to veto destruction of important sites.

“Third, there were several archaeological surveys indicating the importance of the rock shelters, which were disregarded by Rio Tinto.

“Fourth, Rio Tinto misled the PKKP as to the need for destruction. The agreement of 2011 asserted that ‘Rio Tinto used its reasonable endeavours to minimise impacts of those operations on Aboriginal heritage sites and consulted with the PKKP about the means of doing so’.