The Hindmarsh Island bridge case is being deliberately misremembered in a new fight over the Blayney goldmine

The proposed goldmine site near Blayney. The $1bn development has been halted after Tanya Plibersek’s decision that the headwaters of the Belubula River are sacred to the Wiradjuri people. Photograph: Supplied

There is nothing more corrosive to a relationship than the belief you have been lied to.

That is why suggestions that Indigenous Australians have fabricated stories and traditions to prevent development, or gain more purchase in land disputes, are so damaging to the goodwill on which any hope of reconciliation must rest.