Position Statement

Pilitika/Robbins Island is the Country of the Piriliyuyna people and is a place of enduring cultural and spiritual significance for the Palawa community.

It is a place of connection, story and lives lived, of deep memory, both tangible and intangible. Pilitika is a cultural landscape that is not an island in isolation. It is connected to ‘mainland’ Lutruwita/Tasmania through the Old People and their ceremony and stories, through the birdlife and other cultural values and should remain so.

While the Piriliyuyna are no longer here, the Palawa community has survived, and the responsibility of caring for our Country and maintaining those old (and new) connections fall on our shoulders. We do not take that responsibility lightly.

The Aboriginal Heritage Council is deeply disappointed at learning that the Australian Government Minister for the Environment and Water has made the decision to approve the proposed windfarm. Once again, Palawa Country and heritage is, at best compromised, and at worst destroyed forever. Once again, our community is left grieving for the loss of knowledge, Country and heritage, and fighting for its protection.

The Aboriginal Heritage Council will never support this project.

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