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Juukan Gorge
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Juukan Gorge
22°37′3″S 117°9′28″E / 22.61750°S 117.15778°E Juukan Gorge is a gorge in the Hamersley Range in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, about 60 kilometres (37 mi) from Tom Price. It was named by the daughter of Puutu Kunti Kurrama man Juukan, also known as Tommy Ashburton, who was born at Jukarinya (Mount Brockman).
The gorge is known primarily for a cave that was the only inland site in Australia with evidence of continuous human occupation for over 46,000 years, including through the last Ice Age. The cave was permanently destroyed by mining company Rio Tinto in May 2020. Ministerial consent had been given to expand Rio Tinto's mine in 2013 under Western Australian legislation.
Prior to its destruction, the cave in Juukan Gorge was an ancient site that had been excavated several times with the help of the traditional owners of the land, the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (Binigura) peoples.
As part of reparations to the Traditional Owners by Rio Tinto, there are plans underway for a full-size replica of the Juukan Gorge rock shelters to be built at the site.
The archaeological significance of the Juukan Gorge was known at least since 2009, when it was described as "two rock shelters with Aboriginal occupation starting at least 32,000 years ago and extending throughout the Last Glacial period".
Rio Tinto received ministerial consent to mine the site in 2013 in the pursuit of expanding their iron ore mining operations. A year later, an archaeological dig discovered the site was much older than previously thought, at around 46,000 years old, and rich in cultural artefact including animal bones in middens showing changes in the local fauna, grindstones and various sacred objects. One particularly significant finding was a length of plaited human hair, woven together from strands from the heads of several different people, about 4,000 years old. DNA testing revealed that the hair had belonged to the direct ancestors of Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) people alive today.
PKKP heritage manager Heather Builth told Rio Tinto that the site was one of the "top five" most significant in the whole of the Pilbara region, and archaeologist Michael Slack had told them that one of the rock shelters, Juukan 2, was of "the highest archaeological significance in Australia", saying that its significance "could not be overstated", being "[the only] site of this age with faunal remains in unequivocal association with stone tools".
The cave was ultimately destroyed with explosives on 24 May 2020 as part of Rio Tinto's expansion of the Brockman 4 mine. This was despite the PKKP having said many times that they wanted to preserve the site and having issued an urgent request to halt the blasts five days beforehand. The Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 (WA) does not allow for mining consent to be renegotiated on the basis of new information, and the blasting was legal under a Section 18 exemption in the Act. Western Australian Aboriginal Affairs Minister Ben Wyatt was as of August 2020 reviewing the Act.
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Juukan Gorge
22°37′3″S 117°9′28″E / 22.61750°S 117.15778°E Juukan Gorge is a gorge in the Hamersley Range in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, about 60 kilometres (37 mi) from Tom Price. It was named by the daughter of Puutu Kunti Kurrama man Juukan, also known as Tommy Ashburton, who was born at Jukarinya (Mount Brockman).
The gorge is known primarily for a cave that was the only inland site in Australia with evidence of continuous human occupation for over 46,000 years, including through the last Ice Age. The cave was permanently destroyed by mining company Rio Tinto in May 2020. Ministerial consent had been given to expand Rio Tinto's mine in 2013 under Western Australian legislation.
Prior to its destruction, the cave in Juukan Gorge was an ancient site that had been excavated several times with the help of the traditional owners of the land, the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (Binigura) peoples.
As part of reparations to the Traditional Owners by Rio Tinto, there are plans underway for a full-size replica of the Juukan Gorge rock shelters to be built at the site.
The archaeological significance of the Juukan Gorge was known at least since 2009, when it was described as "two rock shelters with Aboriginal occupation starting at least 32,000 years ago and extending throughout the Last Glacial period".
Rio Tinto received ministerial consent to mine the site in 2013 in the pursuit of expanding their iron ore mining operations. A year later, an archaeological dig discovered the site was much older than previously thought, at around 46,000 years old, and rich in cultural artefact including animal bones in middens showing changes in the local fauna, grindstones and various sacred objects. One particularly significant finding was a length of plaited human hair, woven together from strands from the heads of several different people, about 4,000 years old. DNA testing revealed that the hair had belonged to the direct ancestors of Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) people alive today.
PKKP heritage manager Heather Builth told Rio Tinto that the site was one of the "top five" most significant in the whole of the Pilbara region, and archaeologist Michael Slack had told them that one of the rock shelters, Juukan 2, was of "the highest archaeological significance in Australia", saying that its significance "could not be overstated", being "[the only] site of this age with faunal remains in unequivocal association with stone tools".
The cave was ultimately destroyed with explosives on 24 May 2020 as part of Rio Tinto's expansion of the Brockman 4 mine. This was despite the PKKP having said many times that they wanted to preserve the site and having issued an urgent request to halt the blasts five days beforehand. The Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 (WA) does not allow for mining consent to be renegotiated on the basis of new information, and the blasting was legal under a Section 18 exemption in the Act. Western Australian Aboriginal Affairs Minister Ben Wyatt was as of August 2020 reviewing the Act.