'Highly offensive': Cultural heritage conference sponsored by Woodside

The Australian chapter of an international organisation dedicated to protecting cultural heritage has accepted sponsorship from Woodside Energy – despite the company’s track record of destroying Aboriginal heritage sites at Murujuga in WA’s Pilbara.

Mardudhenera woman and Murujuga custodian Raelene Cooper said she was “flabbergasted” by the “highly offensive” sponsorship arrangement.

Australia ICOMOS is the national chapter of the UN-sponsored International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS). It has announced Woodside as a “silver sponsor” of its 2024 National Symposium ‘Caring for a Sunburnt Country’, which begins Thursday in Perth.

Australia ICOMOS announced today on its Facebook page: “Woodside Energy’s silver sponsorship is going towards supporting the attendance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander speakers and participants, and towards the hosting of a field trip to the Burrup Peninsula by the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation.” 

But Woodside’s past and ongoing operations at Murujuga on the Burrup Peninsula have proven controversial amongst traditional custodians and heritage professionals.

Murujuga contains more than a million rock engravings, some of which are at least 40,000 years old. UNESCO is currently considering a nomination for the area to become a World Heritage listed site.

When the Karratha Gas Plant was constructed on the Burrup in the 1980s as part of Woodside’s North West Shelf project, an estimated 5000 pieces of rock art were destroyed.

Meanwhile, scientists and traditional custodians believe ongoing emissions from Woodside’s Burrup Hub and other industrial developments are degrading the Murujuga rock art.

Raelene Cooper, who is the former chair of the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, told The Last Place on Earth the sponsorship agreement “doesn’t make any sense.”

“Woodside and those kinds of organisations, especially in oil and gas, are brutal,” she said. “They don’t care at what cost, as long as their dollar bills are getting bigger and bigger. They have no care or empathy for the surrounding areas of where they’re putting their destructive projects.

“For them to be sitting there promoting that they actually have any kind of acknowledgement or care for what they’re destroying, when they want to get more approvals from state and federal government to continue the harmful projects that they have – it’s ludicrous.”

Australia ICOMOS President Professor Tracey Ireland told The Last Place on Earth that the body “consults widely about conference sponsorship and acts in accordance with our sponsorship policy.”

“Australia ICOMOS is committed to working with community, government, and industry sectors to promote the value of cultural heritage and improve heritage conservation outcomes,” she said.

Woodside is currently seeking state and federal government approval to extend the life of the North West Shelf project for a further 46 years.

Earlier this year, a group of notable signatories including Raelene Cooper, Yindjibarndi elder Tootsie Daniel, Wong-Goo-Tt-Oo Elder Wilfred Hicks, former WA Premier Carmen Lawrence, and former WA Governor Kim Beazley wrote to federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek, urging her to reject the North West Shelf extension on cultural heritage grounds.

“Scientific evidence that industrial pollution from gas processing on the Burrup Peninsula is degrading the ancient Murujuga rock art is clear and compelling, and the outdated North West Shelf facility is by far the largest contributor to the pollution load,” the letter said. “This pollution, and the ongoing presence and proliferation of heavy industry on the Burrup is a fundamental threat to both the heritage values and the success of the proposed Murujuga World Heritage listing.”

The Last Place on Earth has approached Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation for comment.

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