Exclusive Sport AFL AFL 2020
This was published 2 years ago
AFL to sever ties with Rio Tinto over Indigenous
sacred site blast
Jake Niall
October 13, 2020 — 8.00pm
The AFL has decided to part company with Rio Tinto, a sponsor of the league's Indigenous pathway
programs, over the mining giant's destruction of a 46,000-year-old Indigenous sacred site in the Pilbara.
The AFL decision to end the partnership with Rio Tinto - which funds three Indigenous football programs
and contributes sponsorship as well - had to be ratified by the AFL commission this week, but is a fait
accompli after careful consideration by AFL boss Gillon McLachlan and his executives.
The AFL was subject to criticism for the partnership with the mining giant, which blew up the site at Juukan
Gorge, Western Australia, to access iron ore, in an event that upset the traditional owners, prompted a Senate
inquiry and saw three Rio Tinto executives resign, including the chief executive.
The Juukan Gorge blasts cost the jobs of three Rio Tinto executives.
PKKP ABORIGINAL CORPORATION
Rio Tinto, which was forced to apologise for blasting the Juukan Gorge site of rock shelters, had a
sponsorship that saw the company fund three Indigenous football pathway programs - the Flying
Boomerangs (boys), the Woomeras (girls) and the Footy Means Business program for 18-24-year-old
Indigneous footballers.
The deal was worth close to $1.5m to the AFL, when including the additional sponsorship. The AFL will need
to find a replacement sponsor after severing ties with the mining company, in order to keep funding those
programs aimed at helping young Indigenous boys and girls through football.
The decision, while potentially costly during the COVID-19 recession that has hit the AFL and its clubs hard,
will be welcomed by many Indigenous leaders, who voiced dismay at Rio Tinto's destruction of the 46,000
site, which happened in late May this year.
The AFL was clearly mindful that continuing with Rio Tinto risked significant backlash, including from past
and present Indigenous footballers, and had the potential to seriously undermine the game's relationship
with Indigenous Australians and credentials as a source of hope and pride for Indigenous peoples, given the
high proportion of AFL players with Indigenous heritage, their public profile and the AFL's promotion of
those players.
The company's partnership with the AFL was up for renewal this year. The AFL's ten-year relationship with
Rio Tinto had been assisted by the fact that the AFL's former chairman and ex-Carlton great Mike Fitzpatrick
formerly sat on the company's board.
The traditional owners, the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) people, gave evidence to the Senate
inquiry and have said that the site's destruction via explosives had caused "immeasurable cultural and
spiritual loss and profound grief.''
The AFL's head of inclusion, Tanya Hosch, consulted widely with Indigenous leaders and experts on the Rio
Tinto issue - including the league's Indigenous Advisory Council, which includes Richmond assistant coach
Xavier Clarke, AFL commissioners Kim Williams and Gab Trainor and chairman Paul Briggs - before the AFL
executive made the recommendation that the partnership end.
Departing Essendon star Joe Daniher criticised the AFL over the Rio Tinto partnership, saying the league had
to hold "higher standards'' where Indigenous issues were concerned, while Big Bash League cricketer and
activist Ben Abbatangelo wrote an open letter to AFL chief executive McLachlan calling for it to sever ties
with the mining giant, in an Instagram post that was "liked'' by former Swans champion and Indigenous
player Adam Goodes.
Rio Tinto, which apologised to the PKKP people, told the Senate inquiry that executives were not aware of
the cultural importance of the site prior to the explosion, company executives having not read archaeological
surveys commissioned by the company that outlined the site's significance.
The Rio Tinto issue has become a major political issue, both nationally and in WA, where the state
government had given approval for the mining company to blast the site in 2013.
Jake Niall is a Walkley award-winning sports journalist and chief AFL writer for The Age. Connect via Twitter or email.