Top statistician breaks silence over Murujuga rock art study near Woodside gas plant
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-02/murujuga-rock-art-study-woodside-government-interference/105806508

The rock art at Murujuga (the Burrup Peninsula, surrounding lands, and nearby islands) has immense cultural importance for Indigenous people. They've told us that, we should listen, and the Western Australian government should not be acting dismissively.

Speaking from the perspective of a non-indigenous person, I think we should all be capable of recognising Murujuga as unique in the whole world, beautiful and precious for artistic reasons, valuable for historical reasons, and important for environmental reasons. It's a connection with the land and with people (past and present) that we should appreciate, preserve, and regard with respect.

Murujuga has over two million petroglyphs, making it one of the largest, densest, and most diverse historical sites in the world. This art covers a timespan of more than 50,000 years, and is the work of many generations of traditional owners: the Yaburara, Ngarluma, Mardudhunera, Yindjibarndi, and Wong-Goo-Tt-Oo peoples.

I think it's good to see Professor Mullins and his team of scientists have added their voices to the voices of Indigenous people and say the region should be a no-go zone for mining companies. It's also shocking that the government of Western Australia is now misrepresenting the work of those scientists so they can give approval to mining companies to continue and expand their mining operations.

#Murujuga #BurrupPeninsula #AusPol #Indigenous #Art #IndigenousArt #Woodside