Tuesday, September 27, 2022

Indigenous Australians Win Big Victory Against Energy Company

Mabo Day celebrates the 1992 decision to recognize indigenous land rights.

Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired
GED/HEO

9-27-22

 

In 2012, I was fortunate enough to hike one of world’s great hikes, the Thorsborne Trail on Hinchinbrook Island in Northern Queensland. We were dropped off at one end of the Island and picked up four days later at the other end.

 

It was the second time I’d been to Northern Queensland. I was there in 2008, both times visiting my friend and his family. Whenever I embarked on these trips I am compelled to look at maps and see exactly where I am in relation to everything else.

 

As I drove around, I took time to look at the map. I like maps and everyone should have an atlas. I noticed all these little islands around the coast and on many of them, there were these annotations that almost always said that this or that Dutch explorer first visited there. The exception was those that Captain Cook, the English explorer not only “discovered” but claimed for the English monarch under the Terra Nullius law.  Terra Nullias is Latin for Nobody’s land” and is closely connected to The Doctrine of Discovery, the theoretical and intellectual basis for European colonization.

 

“The Doctrines of Christian Discovery (DoCD) originate with 15th century Papal Bulls that were issued by the Vatican and implemented by Monarchies, sanctioning the brutal Conquest and Colonization of non-Christians who were deemed “enemies of Christ” in Africa and the Americas.”

 

While in Townsville in 2012, I came across this carnival or event and decided to walk around. There was entertainment and music and it was an event organized by the Australian indigenous population. It was the first and only time I ate Kangaroo meat.

 

It turned out it was a celebration of Mabo Day. Eddie Mabo was an Indigenous Australian who, with others, filed a lawsuit challenging the Doctrine of Discovery and the ownership of land. British colonial law held that the indigenous people did not “use” this land.

 

Obviously, the indigenous people had used the land. They used it as a means of subsistence. Tribal society doesn’t possess or own the land, they are part of it.  It satisfied a need. But for class society, including feudalism, although capitalist relations were emerging in this period, the term “use” in this instance means they didn’t exploit it, didn’t treat it like a commodity to be bought and sold and used it to generate surplus value and/or profit, or as the law said,  “in a manner that indicates possession”. It used this law as justification for its colonial ventures. It’s important to understand the basis for this understanding of possession.

 

The Mabo Decision overturned these centuries-old colonial laws, which stated that all land belonged to the Crown because the Indigenous people did not use it. This was patently untrue of course, for Indigenous Australians had been fishing, farming, and occupying these lands for tens of thousands of years before the arrival of the British. They had their customs and laws dictating land use.

 

This was a huge victory for the indigenous people of Australia and I was lucky enough to talk with his family who were at the festival. I learned a few things that day. Most of us use the term “Aboriginal” when referring to the first inhabitants of this island continent. And the image we have of them is that they are black, like black Africans but with different features. But that day, I met an indigenous man who looked more like a Latino or Native American. I spoke to him, asked him where the term Aboriginal came from and filmed it with my phone. This was 2012 and the readers must forgive my ignorance and lack of skills, (we are always learning) but I learned the origins of the term “aboriginal”. He was a Torres Straits Islander off the northern coast and you can see him here.

Santos' Drilling Off Tiwi Islands

Last week, one of the Australian Indigenous tribes had a major victory as an Australian judge overturned a decision by Australian regulators that had allowed the giant energy company Santos Ltd. to drill in the Barossa gas field in the ocean off the coast of the Tiwi Islands. Dennis Tipakalippa, an indigenous leader filed the suit because the regulator shouldn’t have approved it without consulting his clan about the impact of the drilling.  (My added emphasis). These islands are a little north of Darwin and are part of the Northern Territories.

 

 “Today’s decision puts oil-and-gas companies on notice,” said Alina Leikin, a lawyer with the nonprofit Environmental Defenders Office, which represented Mr. Tipakalippa, the indigenous leader that filed the suit.  “It confirms that the voices of First Nations communities must be heard when their countries and cultures are under threat.” WSJ 9-21-22

 

It is an important legal victory but the basis of the suit, that First Nations “communities weren’t consulted” is a bit of a pyrrhic victory as the company and its global investors will prevail, putting them on notice doesn’t accomplish much unfortunately. Workers have rights as members of unions to be consulted when their employers make decisions. We had a term in our contract, titled, “meet and confer” that contractually obligated the employer to inform us of their intentions. They were not obligated to change their minds however. Doing something that harmed us was a matter for mass action and violating laws. 

 

 

Santos Corp is planning on appealing the decision and Santos is a multi-national corporation, that has “financial backing from overseas” according to the Wall Street Journal.  The venture is a $3 billion project and we can be assured that the indigenous people and their allies here are facing a very powerful global foe that likely will prevail in the long run in one way or another. The clan will be consulted then there are numerous strategies on the part of the company including buying off indigenous leaders.

Most importantly, the project will not be halted and the environment and the long-term effect on the culture and traditions of the indigenous residents will be harmed in some way.

 

I do not intend to undermine the courage or integrity that many individuals in the non- profits or NGO’s that fight these fights around the world have. But the road to hell is paved with good intentions as the saying goes. The reality is that winning lawsuits against these giant global corporations are stop gap measures that simply postpone the day of reckoning.

 

Investors in Santos vary from ENN the Chinese energy firm owned by Chinese billionaire Wang Yusuo, the Chinese hedge fund, Hony, Vanguard and many others. Santos has also ventured in to the oil business.

 

We see how global capitalism is in control when it comes to producing the necessities of life and no amount of regulation or lawsuits will contain capital and its rapacious quest for profits. Capitalism can only destroy life not protect it.

 

A global federation of democratic socialist states planning production on a global scale, determining what we need as a human society and how we can produce and supply that need is the only answer. It is the only way all human culture and history can be preserved.


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