This powerful film lays bare the devastating impact of Wittenoom’s toxic legacy while honoring the resilience of Banjima people striving to reclaim and heal their land. It charts the struggle for reme...

This powerful film lays bare the devastating impact of Wittenoom’s toxic legacy while honoring the resilience of Banjima people striving to reclaim and heal their land. It charts the struggle for reme...

Note: This report includes the name of person who has died.The Traditional Owners of Country including Wittenoom have launched a $1.5 billion legal claim against the Western Australian government.For ...

The fight to clean up Wittenoom’s asbestos has reached the United Nations, after a Banjima Traditional Owner and Australian documentary filmmaker travelled to Geneva to bring attention to the legal case. Johnnell Parker, a Banjima Traditional Owner, and Yaara Bou Melhem, the director and producer of _Yurlu | Country_ , spoke at an official UN event last week, calling for the remediation of the the Wittenoom contamination on Banjima Country in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. Wittenoom is the largest contaminated site in the Southern Hemisphere. The area was contaminated by decades of asbestos mining, leaving Aboriginal people in Western Australia with the highest rate of mesothelioma deaths in the world. It is linked to more than 4,000 deaths, according to the Asbestos Diseases Society of Australia. Last month, the traditional owners of an area launched a $1.5 billion legal claim against the Western Australian government over the asbestos contamination and its ongoing impacts on First Nations people. Wittenoom is located about 1,400 kilometres north-east of Perth. Bou Melhem and Parker took part in an official UN Side Event at the 61st Regular Session of the Human Rights Council, speaking about the injustices of the contamination. “Despite the legal efforts of the community over years, and despite the apparent successes in the legal processes regarding Native Title and the ban of asbestos, at the end of the day, the reality of toxic contamination of the land and of the people are appalling and heartbreaking,” said Marcos Orellana, the UN Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights. “It’s a predictable, inevitable result of a system that has made a choice time and time again to prioritize industry over Indigenous lives. And this is what we call environmental violence,” said Ghazali Ohorella, Legal Consultant of International Indian Treaty Council. While in Geneva, Bou Melhem’s documentary _Yurlu | Country_ won the Vision for Human Rights Award at the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights. This is one of the world’s leading human rights film prizes. “ _Yurlu | Country_ shows clearly how human and environmental rights violations compound and intersect through corporate impunity and government complicity in abnegation of human rights obligations. In the face of a new rush to exploitation, extraction and encroachment everywhere, its urgency is undeniable,” the jury statement for the FIFDH Vision for Human Rights Award said. **_Feature image: Director & Producer Yaara Bou Melhem & Banjima Traditional Owner Johnnell Parker at the UN Human Rights Council, Geneva, Switzerland._** Share this United NationsWittenoom by Madeline Hislop 2 hours ago ## Stay Smart! Get Women's Agenda in your inbox * Email * Phone This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Δ ## Latest news ### In conversation with Kelly O’Shanassy: what a decade at Australian Conservation Foundation taught her about endurance ### Cheers and lessons after Trump delegation failed to disrupt women’s rights forum ### Reality TV didn’t invent hegemonic masculinity. But it is helping mainstream it ### 4 expert tips for family mealtimes without the drama ### Danielle Smith appointed new General Manager of Brisbane Lions AFLW ### How an International Court judge thinks about hope

Western Australia’s government is facing legal action from an Aboriginal corporation to clean up asbestos contamination from the Wittenoom mine.

Asbestos disease advocates criticise a Queensland blogger for taking her daughter to one of Australia's most contaminated sites.

Banjima Traditional Owners say they have 'stood still' and 'asked the questions' of the Government of Western Australia about the legacy of asbestos contamination at Wittenoom for generations, only fo...

A place where children played in asbestos sand pits and mine workers were covered daily in deadly dust is somewhere that former residents remember fondly as a beautiful place and community. Conflicting emotions are central to Wittenoom's story.

Western Australia’s government is facing legal action from an Aboriginal corporation to clean up asbestos contamination from the Wittenoom mine. #national #wa