Mining, land claims and the negotiation of Indigenous interests: research from the Queensland Gulf Country and Pilbara region of Western Australia

Paper focussing on internal deliberations of Indigenous people in relation to social processes, mining developments and Indigenous intellectual traditions about significance of land; author's research in West Pilbara (WA) and Gulf Country (Qld) relate to Indigenous involvement in development of, and negotiations about, new projects; discusses 'site clearance' surveys, identifying, and preventing development of, sacred sites; significance of land outside sacred sites; examines how Aboriginal people discuss country when it is subject of contesting land use visions; Indigenous politics; competition and conflict of views; customary law and traditions as basis for making decisions; differing interpretations; conflict and consensus within communities; external negotiations; concludes that competition over interpretations of cultural knowledge, vibrant cultural politics and material aspirations and realities need to be understood in order to understand cultural responses to projects