EDO lawyers take action on behalf of traditional owners and custodians to help them protect their ancestral lands and cultural artefacts from destructive development, tourism and mining.
Together with our Indigenous clients, we have worked to prevent 4WD vehicles trailing across cultural heritage sites in Tasmania’s takanya/Tarkine, challenged the destruction of Aboriginal sacred places by the Shenhua mega-mine in New South Wales, provided advice and representation to Garawa people of the Gulf fighting the dual threats of gas extraction and Glencore’s McArthur River Mine and sought to protect the ancestral lands of the Adnyamathanha people of South Australia from a controversial coal gasfication project.
Our statement of commitment:
We will use our expertise, professionalism and deep commitment to assist and stand with our Aboriginal clients as they protect and promote their Country, culture and heritage through law.
Our Aboriginal Engagement & Cultural Heritage Work
‘States have failed’: The Final Report into the Destruction of Indigenous Heritage Sites at Juukan Gorge
First Nations Lore key to Flying-fox recovery in the Wet Tropics
Flying-Fox Roost Management Reform for Queensland
UN Scrutiny for WA Cultural Heritage Bill after First Nations Referral
Cultural Heritage Protection in Queensland
First Nations and Indigenous Peoples Program Working Group
Fleur Ramsay – Chair
David Morris – CEO
Nicole Sommer – Director, Healthy Environment and Justice
Kirstiana Ward – Managing Lawyer, Cairns
Dr Lauren Butterly – Senior Solicitor
Wotna Mori – Solicitor
Daniel Thompson – Paralegal
Caring for Country
The Caring for Country guide is a key part of our work for and on behalf of Aboriginal communities. It is intended to help Aboriginal peoples understand their rights and obligations under environmental and natural resource management law, and brings together the wide range of laws relating to country, culture and heritage that affect Aboriginal peoples in NSW.
EDO recognises the traditional owners and custodians of the land, seas and rivers of Australia. We pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders past and present, and aspire to learn from traditional knowledge and customs so that, together, we can protect our environment and cultural heritage through law.
