First Nations custodians are marking two years since they reoccupied their homelands within a coal mining lease in central Queensland.
The Wangan and Jagalingou Nagana Yarrbayn cultural custodians will host three days of talks, music and ceremonies from Saturday to celebrate two years of holding Waddananggu (the talking) ceremony.
Since the ceremony started, a sacred fire has been kept burning within a bora ring, a stone circle.
The celebration is called ‘Bularu’ - the word for two in Wirdi, the language spoken by Wangan and Jagalingou people.
The event will feature cultural ceremonies, workshops, tours to cultural sites and live music from Indigenous performers such as Gurridyula Coedie McAvoy, the founder of the Waddananggu ceremony.
For Mr McAvoy, his father Adrian Burragubba and other Wangan and Jagalingou people opposed to the Carmichael coalmine, the ceremony represents a chance to connect with family on their ancestors' lands.
It also allows them to share a glimpse of their culture and tell their side of the story in their fight against Indian mining giant Adani and its Australian subsidiary Bravus.
The company maintains that the camp is a front for anti-coal activists, unlawful, against the wishes of the majority of traditional owners and should be moved.
In a public Facebook post, Bravus called the ceremony "Queensland's worst weekend away" and described Waddananggu as "downright shameful".
“The unlawful protest camp on our mining lease is a dishonest tactic used by global anti-fossil activist groups like Friends of the Earth and Frontline Action on Coal in their mission to shut down Australia’s export coal industry," a Bravus spokesperson told AAP in a statement.
In 2019, after years of court cases, the Queensland Labor government extinguished native title over 1385 hectares of Wangan and Jagalingou land, paving the way for the mine.
"For two years we have been asserting our human rights and reclaiming our traditional land from Adani’s coal mine," Mr McAvoy said.
"The Queensland government granted Adani a mining lease over our traditional homelands and extinguished native title, but they cannot extinguish our spirit, our connection to country and our sacred fire that we have kept burning at Waddananggu for two years."
Friends of the Earth is a grassroots environmental network that works with other green and progressive groups on projects and campaigns.
"We call on Friends of the Earth to listen to and respect the voices of the majority of Wangan and Jagalingou traditional owners and to stop actively promoting and organising activities that undermine First Nations peoples’ right to self-determination," the Bravus spokesperson said.
"These anti-fossil fuel activist groups use Mr Coedie McAvoy, a frequent visitor to the protest camp, to marginalise and silence the voices of the majority of Wangan and Jagalingou traditional owners, who overwhelmingly support the mine and are working with us under legally binding agreements that protect their rights and respect their cultural heritage."
Both Friends of the Earth and Mr McAvoy himself say the environmental group does not employ or pay Mr McAvoy.
The two-year anniversary of the Waddananggu cultural ceremony comes after more than a decade of resistance to the coal mine from some Wangan and Jagalingou people, led by Mr Burragubba.
"Our ancestors before us and our old people used to go out on country and have ceremony significant to us because that's my great grandmother's country and we're the water people," he told AAP.
"And so we'll maintain customary laws and our traditional ways of connecting with the land and that's why we have these ceremonies."
Bravus also provided a statement on behalf of Wangan and Jagalingou elder Patrick Malone, who is in favour of the mine and has worked with the company on cultural heritage.
Between 2012 and March 2016, Wangan and Jagalingou people held three meetings to discuss signing an Indigenous land use agreement with Adani.
It was voted down each time.
Another meeting, convened in Maryborough in April 2016, recorded a 294-to-one vote in favour of a land use agreement.
Members of the native title claim group who boycotted this meeting say it was stacked with people who didn’t have a right to vote and it should not have been authorised.
It has survived legal challenges since and was shored up by changes to the Native Title Act, which until 2017 had required authorisation for an Indigenous land use agreement by a claim group to be unanimous.
The federal coalition government, supported by Labor, amended the Native Title Act so a majority of named claimants could authorise an agreement.
In the statement provided by Bravus, Mr Malone said Wangan and Jagalingou traditional owners remain in favour of the land use agreement.
"The (agreement) has ensured we can protect the environment and our cultural heritage on the mine site, and it has given us employment and business opportunities," he said.
"So there's a lot of support for the mine and what's happening there with Bravus and I’m confident we are working with the support of the majority of our people."
Mr McAvoy said the Bularu celebration is all about community.
"It’s an inclusive community gathering to share and celebrate our culture and peaceful reoccupation of our homelands," he said.
"We are coming together, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, and learning, growing and celebrating culture and protection of country."
