Wangan and Jagalingou Cultural Custodians will mark five years of the Waddananggu cultural ceremony with a three-day gathering on their homelands within the Adani/Bravus Carmichael mining lease in Central Queensland.
The Nagana Yarrbayn Cultural Custodians began the Waddananggu, meaning "the talking", ceremony on August 26, 2021, on land covered by the mining lease.
A sacred fire has remained burning within a stone circle, or Bora ring, since the ceremony began, with other Aboriginal peoples and non-Indigenous people invited to join the Waddananggu community within Wangan and Jagalingou Country.
The anniversary celebration, called Mala, will run from Friday, August 28 to Sunday, August 30 and is expected to attract more than 200 people.
Mala means "five" and "hand" in Wirdi, the language spoken by Wangan and Jagalingou people, reflecting both the anniversary and the gathering's focus on community.
Cultural ceremonies, workshops, tours of cultural sites and live music from Indigenous performers will be held across the weekend, including a performance by Waddananggu founder Gurridyula (Coedie) McAvoy.
The anniversary follows more than a decade of opposition to the Carmichael coal mine from Wangan and Jagalingou people, with the Cultural Custodians maintaining they never gave free, prior and informed consent for the mine.
Mr McAvoy described the five-year occupation as an assertion of Wagalbara clan rights and cultural authority.
"For five years we have been asserting our human rights and reclaiming our Wagalbara clan groups territory inside the broader Wangan and Jagalingou nation, back from the crown," Mr McAvoy said.
"We are asserting that Adani's coal mine is unlorefully stealing our property and that the crown along with the Queensland government is complicit in the damaging of the sacred Doongmabulla springs and theft of Wagalbara resources without our consent."
The Cultural Custodians have used section 28 of Queensland's Human Rights Act 2019 to defend their ability to remain on their homelands and practise culture.
Queensland Police acknowledged those cultural rights in 2021 after Adani sought to have the group removed from the site.
Waddananggu has since been described as setting a precedent for the use of human rights law by Aboriginal people to protect cultural rights where Native Title processes have not provided access to cultural sites.
Mr McAvoy said the anniversary was also intended to encourage other Aboriginal people to assert their rights to clan homelands.
"We are the first group of Aboriginal people in Queensland to use the Queensland Human rights Act to defend our human and cultural rights, and it is our hope that the success and perseverance of the Waddananggu ceremony will inspire other Aboriginal people to assert their rights and reclaim their clan groups homelands which governments illegally and recklessly hand over to corporate interests," he said.
"The Mala celebration is all about community. Mala means 'five' signifying five years of Waddananggu, but it also means 'hand'. Every hand is welcome as Waddananggu is an inclusive community."
Concerns about the Doongmabulla Springs remain central to the Cultural Custodians' campaign against the mine.
The group says the mine threatens underground aquifers feeding the springs, which are a nationally important wetland and a culturally significant site for Wangan and Jagalingou people.
Scientific research cited by the Cultural Custodians has identified risks to the springs from contamination and groundwater drawdown.
A legal challenge brought by the Nagana Yarrbayn Wangan and Jagalingou Cultural Custodians against the Queensland Government is proceeding to a full trial in the Supreme Court.
The case concerns the government's refusal to issue an enforcement order stopping work while the source of contamination at Doongmabulla Springs is investigated.
Mr McAvoy said the continuing ceremony had grown beyond its original opposition to the mine.
"Adani's coal mine is draining Doongmabulla springs, we told them this would happen, we also told them that we were never going to back down," he said.
"What started as a task to stop a mine, has evolved into a quest for freedom for my clan with the now 5 year old Autonomous tribal clan estate of Waddananggu."
Photos and videos from the Mala anniversary celebration are expected to be published by Wangan and Jagalingou - Standing Our Ground across the weekend.
