David and Goliath battle pitting billionaire Andrew Forrest against remote community

FMG's Solomon mine hub was built on Yindjibarndi country without their agreement. (Phil Davies: Juluwarlu/ Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation) Link copiedShareShare articleIt has been portrayed as a David and Goliath battle: a group of Aboriginal elders from a remote community in Western Australia's outback versus one of the richest and most prominent men in Australia. And tomorrow's historic Federal Court decision, in which Justice Stephen Burley will reveal how much compensation the Indigenous group will receive, is certainly not without drama. Andrew Forrest backed a splinter group of Yindjibarndi elders. (ABC News: Michelle Stanley) On one side is flamboyant mining billionaire Andrew Forrest, known simply as "Twiggy" to many Australians, whose company FMG has been mining vast quantities of iron ore on land sacred to the Yindjibarndi people in WA's Pilbara since 2013. On the other side is the Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation (YAC), headed by Michael Woodley, who has been pivotal in his people's struggle to both be recognised for their deep connection to the land that stretches back tens of thousands of years and to be compensated for FMG's actions. Michael Woodley has been pivotal in his people's struggle. (ABC Pilbara: Amelia Searson) Recognition came in 2017, when a court awarded the Yindjibarndi exclusive native title rights over a 2,700-square-kilometre area. It was a claim fought by FMG every step of the way and through multiple expensive appeals. Compensation will be determined tomorrow, but exactly who has to pay and how much could have consequences for mining operations and the conduct of governments across the country for decades to come. This story begins not in 2017, or 2013, but about 50,000 years ago when Aboriginal people first settled in the Pilbara. Evidence of their occupation, in the form of archaeological sites and rock carvings, are scattered throughout the region and helped form the basis of the native tile determination. Yindjibarndi country near Millstream in WA's Pilbara. (ABC Pilbara: Amelia Searson) It was not until the early 1860s, more than 30 years after the Swan River Colony was established by the British at what is now Perth, that the people of the Pilbara came into contact with white settlers keen to establish cotton plantations. Violent and bloody confrontations were to follow in the years to come, including the notorious Flying Foam Massacre at the Burrup Peninsula, as the settlers sought to establish the colony and develop a burgeoning resources industry. Yindjibarndi country before FMG built its Solomon Hub mines. (Supplied: Phil Davies, Juluwarlu/Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation) Pastoral stations were carved out across Yindjibarndi country and Aboriginal people rounded up to be used as indentured labour. Just as they had done across the empire, the British had no qualms about dispossessing the native people of the Pilbara and seizing land they considered belonged to no-one. Yindjibarndi elder and artist Wendy Hubert on country. (Supplied: Philip Davies, Juluwarlu Art Group) It would be more than a century later, in 1992, that the archaic concept of "terra nullis" was finally extinguished by the High Court in its seminal Mabo judgement that established that Aboriginal people had prior rights to the land. In 2003 the Yindjibarndi lodged the native title claim that would eventually take another 14 years to be determined. By that time Mr Forrest's company had already begun clearing ore-rich land across the Yindjibarndi claim area that it planned to develop into a series of mines, destroying ancient heritage sites in the process. Other miners in the area, including Rio Tinto, had negotiated Indigenous Land Use Agreements with traditional owners, under which compensation was paid, although these failed to stop its infamous destruction of Juukan Gorge. Michael Woodley on country at the Fortescue mine site in 2008 before construction began. (Supplied: Phil Davies, Juluwarlu/Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation) Negotiations with the YAC began in 2007 and the Yindjibarndi were keen to also establish a heritage agreement with the mining company to protect culturally important sites. Instead, Mr Forrest began secretly organising and backing a breakaway group of Yindjibarndi people, who then formed the Wirlu-Murra Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation. Mr Forrest wanted the group to replace the YAC as the native title claimants and offered them $4 million a year in royalties compensation. It was far below the 5 per cent the YAC had sought, which would have amounted to about $68 million a year at the time. Barnkwirnanha, a traditional navigation marker between Yindjibarndi and Eastern Guruma, close to the Fortescue mine. (Supplied: Phil Davies, Juluwarlu/Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation) The Federal Court ruled in 2013 that YAC was the only organisation that could sign land use agreements in the area. The division caused by the formation of th

David and Goliath battle pitting billionaire Andrew Forrest against remote community

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