A Statement by the Wunna Nyiyaparli Indigenous People of the Pilbara Region of Australia

The Wunna Nyiyaparli are an Indigenous people who have lived on their traditional lands in the Pilbara region of Australia for many thousands of years. That land is the basis of our law, customs and religion. It contains songlines, sacred sites and the graves of our ancestors.

---

This statement was written and shared with IWGIA by representatives of the Wunna Nyiyaparli through their lawyer, Dr Scott Calnan, who can be contacted at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and +61 407119164.

---

In 2012 we filed an application in the Australian courts to have our rights to our traditional lands recognised in Australian law.

In a hearing and judgment in 2016 an Australian court dismissed our claim to our traditional lands without allowing us to put on any evidence or make any submissions about our connections to that land. This was in circumstances where we did not have money for a lawyer and so did not understand what was occurring in the proceedings and had told the court that this was the case.

Not only did the Australian courts not allow us to appeal from that judgment, but shortly thereafter the legal rights to our traditional lands were given by those courts to a different Indigenous group that we say do not have custody of our traditional lands under traditional laws and customs. The effect of the above is that we are now prohibited from challenging that determination and proving our legal rights to our traditional lands in any Australian court.

The Wunna Nyiyaparli then applied to the UN Human Rights Committee, arguing that the above actions by the Australian courts breached Australia’s human rights obligations under international law. The UN Human Rights Committee upheld our complaint against Australia in a landmark decision that was the first decision by that body concerning Australia’s native title system as well as the first decision by that body concerning the due process obligations of States in determining the legal rights of Indigenous peoples to their traditional lands.

However, the Australian government has rejected that decision and refused to provide any remedies to the Wunna Nyiyaparli at all. The Australian government has a practice of rejecting virtually all decisions of the UN Human Rights Committee in a way that we say is contrary to international law.

Not only have no remedies been provided by Australia, but now as soon as any Wunna Nyiyaparli person steps foot on their traditional lands they are removed by the local Australian police and charged and prosecuted for trespass on their own traditional lands.

We have obligations under our laws and customs to our traditional lands that require us to be able to go onto that land. Our traditional laws and culture are also inscribed on our traditional lands. Without access to their traditional lands Wunna Nyiyaparli elders will not be able to teach to their youth traditional laws and culture and this will lead to our complete extermination as an Indigenous people. Without rights to our traditional lands we will also not be able to care for it as our laws and customs require.

Some of the largest iron ore mines in the world owned by several billionaires are on the traditional lands of the Wunna Nyiyaparli people. This causes us to be concerned about the destruction of our traditional lands and has made the Wunna Nyiyaparli cause a true David and Goliath struggle for our very existence as a people.

Despite Australia’s refusal to accept the decision of the UN Human Rights Committee we are going to continue our struggle to preserve our existence as a people and to uphold our human rights as an Indigenous people under international law.

As a result, we call on all human rights NGOs, concerned individuals, the United Nations and foreign governments around the world to make representations to the Australian government calling on it to reverse its position and to uphold the rights of the Wunna Nyiyaparli in international law as set out in the decision of the UN Human Rights Committee.