Unmarked burial places are scattered all over the vast lease where Fortescue Metals has begun work on its new Solomon mine, an area in which Aboriginal people have lived for millennia.
Three sets of skeletal remains have been found in recent months, two in caves within FMG's ''Firetail Priority Mining and Infrastructure'' area.
English: Fortescue Metals Group - GE CW44 DASH 9 locomotives, Unit 012 leading, on a loaded 220 wagon, 2.6km long, 31,784 ton, iron ore train. Location Pilbara region, Western Australia. May 2008. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
''This is where our most important law men were buried,'' said Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation chief executive Michael Woodley, a senior law man and respected tribal elder. He led healing ceremonies for his people near one burial cave after rock movement - apparently due to exploratory drilling nearby - exposed the first set of remains.
The burial complex was described as ''… a highly important and significant site'' in one FMG archaeological report sent to the Western Australian Department of Indigenous Affairs, and seen by The Saturday Age.
Reports by Fortescue's archaeological consultants list many sites revealing evidence of prehistoric life in Yindjibarndi country, 70 kilometres north of the mining town of Tom Price.
As well as time-worn rock carvings and rare wall art, there are caves with ancient hearths and scattered artefacts including seed grinding stones, as well as trees scarred by the removal of bark to make shields and containers. There are ceremony grounds and mysterious human-made stone arrangements, one like a cairn, described as ''archaeologically unique''.
There are caves all over Yindjibarndi country. Some were Aboriginal homes, others burial places where human remains were interred behind hand-built rock walls.
The sites also include sources of ochre and special stones used in religious ceremonies, including initiations of young men still practised today.
Long protected from the impact of white society by its remoteness, it is a rugged dry plateau surrounded by high ranges on three sides, with spectacular gorges cut by wet-season rivers. Permanent waterholes fringed with trees are oases where wildlife flourishes: fish, reptiles, mammals and birds, such as parrots and peregrine falcons, endangered in many parts of the world. Some Aboriginal people lived a traditional life there until the middle of last century, their descendants say.
The Pilbara is described as ''green fields'' by archaeologists because so few have explored it but 35,000-year-old stone tools were found there on another mine site, Rio Tinto's Hope Downs.
Most of the Yindjibarndi community of about 1000 people now live in the Pilbara township of Roebourne and are deeply distressed by the disturbance of their ancestral graves, Mr Woodley said.
Disturbance, desecration or destruction of these revered remains could unleash dangerous forces into the world, and seriously harm those responsible, he warned: ''We Yindjibarndis are in danger too, unless we protect our sacred sites,'' he said. ''If we fail, our Skygod will make us sick and kill us we believe.''
The Yindjibarndi's oldest law man, Ned Mayinbungu Cheedy, 104, sent an appeal to the world through the Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation website earlier this year: ''We are struggling for our land, our people, our culture - hear our voice,'' he said.
Mr Woodley said: ''Ned feels great pain in his heart and soul and spirit at the thought that our sacred places could be destroyed, but he refuses to let it get him down.
''He keeps on teaching us younger people stories about our culture so it will survive after we are all gone.
''He keeps us all strong when we feel deeply hurt and sad inside, when we feel we are fighting a hopeless battle.''
English: Fortescue Metals Group - GE CW44 DASH 9 locomotives, Unit 012 leading, on a loaded 220 wagon, 2.6km long, 31,784 ton, iron ore train. Location Pilbara region, Western Australia. May 2008. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)''This is where our most important law men were buried,'' said Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation chief executive Michael Woodley, a senior law man and respected tribal elder. He led healing ceremonies for his people near one burial cave after rock movement - apparently due to exploratory drilling nearby - exposed the first set of remains.
The burial complex was described as ''… a highly important and significant site'' in one FMG archaeological report sent to the Western Australian Department of Indigenous Affairs, and seen by The Saturday Age.
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Reports by Fortescue's archaeological consultants list many sites revealing evidence of prehistoric life in Yindjibarndi country, 70 kilometres north of the mining town of Tom Price.
As well as time-worn rock carvings and rare wall art, there are caves with ancient hearths and scattered artefacts including seed grinding stones, as well as trees scarred by the removal of bark to make shields and containers. There are ceremony grounds and mysterious human-made stone arrangements, one like a cairn, described as ''archaeologically unique''.
There are caves all over Yindjibarndi country. Some were Aboriginal homes, others burial places where human remains were interred behind hand-built rock walls.
The sites also include sources of ochre and special stones used in religious ceremonies, including initiations of young men still practised today.
Long protected from the impact of white society by its remoteness, it is a rugged dry plateau surrounded by high ranges on three sides, with spectacular gorges cut by wet-season rivers. Permanent waterholes fringed with trees are oases where wildlife flourishes: fish, reptiles, mammals and birds, such as parrots and peregrine falcons, endangered in many parts of the world. Some Aboriginal people lived a traditional life there until the middle of last century, their descendants say.
The Pilbara is described as ''green fields'' by archaeologists because so few have explored it but 35,000-year-old stone tools were found there on another mine site, Rio Tinto's Hope Downs.
Most of the Yindjibarndi community of about 1000 people now live in the Pilbara township of Roebourne and are deeply distressed by the disturbance of their ancestral graves, Mr Woodley said.
Disturbance, desecration or destruction of these revered remains could unleash dangerous forces into the world, and seriously harm those responsible, he warned: ''We Yindjibarndis are in danger too, unless we protect our sacred sites,'' he said. ''If we fail, our Skygod will make us sick and kill us we believe.''
The Yindjibarndi's oldest law man, Ned Mayinbungu Cheedy, 104, sent an appeal to the world through the Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation website earlier this year: ''We are struggling for our land, our people, our culture - hear our voice,'' he said.
Mr Woodley said: ''Ned feels great pain in his heart and soul and spirit at the thought that our sacred places could be destroyed, but he refuses to let it get him down.
''He keeps on teaching us younger people stories about our culture so it will survive after we are all gone.
''He keeps us all strong when we feel deeply hurt and sad inside, when we feel we are fighting a hopeless battle.''
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