‘Cultural genocide’: Australian state putting industry before heritage, Indigenous women tell UN

Raelene Cooper (left) and Josie Alec at Woodside Energy’s North West Shelf gas development in Karratha, Western Australia. Photograph: JALARU/The Guardian

Two Murujuga traditional custodians have told the United Nations that the Western Australian government is putting the interests of industry above the protection of Indigenous heritage on the Burrup Peninsula.

Raelene Cooper, a Mardudhunera woman and former board member of the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, and Josie Alec, a Kuruma Mardudhunera woman, urged the UN expert mechanism on the rights of Indigenous people in Geneva to “hold the governments of Australia and corporations to account”.