Wiradjuri Elder Exposes Pit Collapse At Barrick's Mine

Neville 'Chappy' Williams, Traditional Owner of the Lake Cowal area took an aerial flight over Barrick's gold mine in Lake Cowal.

He describes his feelings after he witnesses the destruction and desecration of his Peoples sacred sites.

Also on the flight he notices a large collapse in the wall of the pen cut pit which is presently over 100 metre deep.

The Save Lake Cowal campaign is curently investigating if Barrick has reported this incident to the right authorities.

for more info:
http://www.savelakecowal.org
http://protestbarrick.net

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Barrick
• Gold
• Indigenous
• Aboriginal
• gold
• mining
• pit
• wall
• collapse
• aerial
• flight
• environmental
• grassroots

[carver222]

Am I the only one to notice how insignificant this mine is in this flight over the area, and the land all looked pretty much the same, looks like a flea on an elephant butt. The way he talked all the land is sacred, if it weren't for mining we all would still be using pigeons for communication, instead of the computers we are watching this on!

[waysofseeing]

Dear carver222,

Lake Cowal is an ephemeral lake (which means it has a 20 year cycle of wet and dry). To say the mine looks like a "flea on an elephant butt" only adds to your ignorance and obvious distain of Indigenous cultural heritage as Lake Cowal is a sacred corroboree ground for the Wiradjuri and has been dated as far back as 2,000-4,000 years old. The pit will be eventually the size of Uluru, Australia's greatest monolith.

[KaineBurt]

The pit wall collapse clearly indicates that the mine pit is an unstable structure, indicating the likelihood of an eventual breach of the surrounding containment wall between the pit and the lake.

[KaineBurt]

Heart-wrenching words from Wiradjiri elder, Neville Chappy Williams.

Desecration of a sacred site like this is a major act of disrespect to Aboriginal people.

Government and corporations need to realize that they can't 'cherry-pick' what they choose to respect.

Respect is there - or it is not. Shame on the NSW Government for approving this project.

[trueleroix]

What evidence have they provided of this area's sacred properties?

[trueleroix]

@waysofseeing why say things like this, "only adds to your ignorance and obvious distain of Indigenous cultural heritage"? It exposes that your argument is emotion based and does not hold up to reasonable scrutiny.

[KrazyJak90]

I say Blow The plane out of the sky he he he

[KrazyJak90]

3:20 that has been photo shopped because the colappes was only one shelf

[KrazyJak90]

and you wonder why we deny access to those people because its a occupational health and safety hazard the last thing we want is a court case ivolving a person getting hurt or even worse killed !!!

[OverseasCat]

I am trying to make contact via this means, with Mr. Neville ´Chappy´ Williams concerning his advocacy against the nefarious conglomerate of Barrick Gold. Will Mr. Williams or any of his close associates, please contact me at his earliest convenience. In the meantime, keep up your righteous cause against the ill-disguised wickedness of this octopus of globalization. A better world is possible!

[OverseasCat]

I live in the Dominican Republic where the Pueblo Viejo Barrick Gold mine recently had an accident. About 400 employees were intoxicated. BG denied the press access to the affected employees, and roughed up press personnel. It confiscated cell phones of intoxicated employees, and impeded their contact with families. BG denied access to the site to a Dominican National Government official for 7 days, when the incident took place. The struggle is only beginning!

[TheMamajessi]

you ever heard the word ethnocentric brother?

[TheMamajessi]

Stan? I thought you were dead mate!

[bombdia]

Sacred site? Give me a fucking break. It's sacred because they want more money. Give it 50 years of remediation and you wont know a mine existed there. If this guy wants to go back to 25 year life expectancy and the good old days then stop flying around in whitey's airplanes. Those "multinational corporations" pay for your people's welfare!