Welcome to my regular Friday song/tune day, ladies and gentlemen, where I pick a piece of music that reflects my mood or the times, to share with you.

I recall vividly how horrified people were when the Notre Dame went up in flames. It was a tragedy and the world mourned with the French people. It is more than just a sacred place. It is history. If a developer is able to legally destroy sacred historical sites, there should be a huge uproar, don’t you think? Anyway, that’s what international mining company, Rio Tinto, has done this week. It destroyed two Aboriginal rock shelters in the Juukan Gorge. The rock shelters date back 46,000 years and are significant cultural heritage sites.

It was reported that one of the shelters was Australia’s only inland site showing human occupation continuing through the last Ice Age (see The Conversation and The Guardian). I’m completely at a loss as to why such wanton destruction of such a culturally significant site for First Australians, indeed all the people of the world, could have been permitted, and even if legal, how Rio Tinto could have thought it acceptable. I guess Rio Tinto don’t know their place.

As they say in the classics, “You’re welcome.”

Here’s national treasure, Archie Roach.

Kind Regards.
Tracy.