❓ The Minister for Aboriginal Affairs provides an update on the Pioneer Cemetery project in Fitzroy Crossing, detailing the exhumation and reburial of remains, community involvement, and DNA testing initiatives.
AnsweredQoN 607Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
PIONEER CEMETERY —
FITZROY CROSSING
607. Dr A.D. BUTI to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs:
I refer to the Pioneer Cemetery
project in Fitzroy Crossing and the remains discovered last year. Can the
minister update the house on how this government is ensuring that those remains
and the broader community are being treated with the dignity and respect that
they deserve?
FITZROY CROSSING
607. Dr A.D. BUTI to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs:
I refer to the Pioneer Cemetery
project in Fitzroy Crossing and the remains discovered last year. Can the
minister update the house on how this government is ensuring that those remains
and the broader community are being treated with the dignity and respect that
they deserve?
AnswerView source ↗
I
thank the member for Armadale for the question. Members may recall, I previously
provided an answer around the fact that on the banks of the Fitzroy River at
Fitzroy Crossing Aboriginal human remains had been exposed after a couple of
big wet seasons. The banks of the Fitzroy River rose and an old grave was
starting to be exposed; indeed, some bones had washed into the river. There was
an element of urgency last year, so the government provided a $700 000 grant to
exhume the area to prevent further remains from being washed away, and then to
rebury them. They were successfully exhumed last year through work of local
elders and rangers. Seventy-five sets of remains were uncovered during the
project. Sixteen of those could be identified, and of those 16, 11 have been
returned to country across the Kimberley. Just last week, on 16 August, I am
pleased to say, that the remaining 64 remains were reburied at a ceremony in
Fitzroy Crossing. Approximately 150 people attended that ceremony. It was a very
large ceremony. I want to acknowledge the Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture
Centre heritage officer, Neil Carter, who did a wonderful job coordinating both
the exhumation and the burial. I want to acknowledge elders Miss Mary Aitkin
and Joe Brown, as well as the president of the Shire of Derby–West
Kimberley. At the reception following the ceremony several members of the
community including, Ms Merle Carter, who is the co-chair of KALACC, addressed
the gathering and provided their stories about why it was such a significant
process and significant project for them.
Interestingly, at the request of the
community, the National Centre for Indigenous Genomics has collected bone
samples from each of the exhumed human remains for DNA testing. They will be
kept for ongoing testing to try to identify the remains of those who were
uncovered. As a result, those unidentified remains were buried in fairly
shallow graves, at about 1.2 metres, with the approval of families and the
community so that if we need to, we can do future testing to find out whose
remains those were. This has been a wonderful project and I want to thank the
elders, rangers and in particular Neil Carter who has done a wonderful job in
coordinating a project that I suspect will be of extreme historical
significance for the broader history of the Kimberley.
thank the member for Armadale for the question. Members may recall, I previously
provided an answer around the fact that on the banks of the Fitzroy River at
Fitzroy Crossing Aboriginal human remains had been exposed after a couple of
big wet seasons. The banks of the Fitzroy River rose and an old grave was
starting to be exposed; indeed, some bones had washed into the river. There was
an element of urgency last year, so the government provided a $700 000 grant to
exhume the area to prevent further remains from being washed away, and then to
rebury them. They were successfully exhumed last year through work of local
elders and rangers. Seventy-five sets of remains were uncovered during the
project. Sixteen of those could be identified, and of those 16, 11 have been
returned to country across the Kimberley. Just last week, on 16 August, I am
pleased to say, that the remaining 64 remains were reburied at a ceremony in
Fitzroy Crossing. Approximately 150 people attended that ceremony. It was a very
large ceremony. I want to acknowledge the Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture
Centre heritage officer, Neil Carter, who did a wonderful job coordinating both
the exhumation and the burial. I want to acknowledge elders Miss Mary Aitkin
and Joe Brown, as well as the president of the Shire of Derby–West
Kimberley. At the reception following the ceremony several members of the
community including, Ms Merle Carter, who is the co-chair of KALACC, addressed
the gathering and provided their stories about why it was such a significant
process and significant project for them.
Interestingly, at the request of the
community, the National Centre for Indigenous Genomics has collected bone
samples from each of the exhumed human remains for DNA testing. They will be
kept for ongoing testing to try to identify the remains of those who were
uncovered. As a result, those unidentified remains were buried in fairly
shallow graves, at about 1.2 metres, with the approval of families and the
community so that if we need to, we can do future testing to find out whose
remains those were. This has been a wonderful project and I want to thank the
elders, rangers and in particular Neil Carter who has done a wonderful job in
coordinating a project that I suspect will be of extreme historical
significance for the broader history of the Kimberley.
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