Adani’s coal project will violate the rights of Indigenous people along the entire chain of production. Adani are ripping the heart out of Wangan and Jagalingou country to build their coal mine. Adani’s coal trains would run through Juru, Jaanga and Birri country - threatening sacred sites. Finally, Adani’s coal would be burned in Godda, Jharkhand, where Adani are brutally displacing thousands of Indigenous Adivasi people to build a new coal station and burn Australian coal.
Adani’s coal mine would devastate Wangan & Jagalingou (W&J) Country, impacting totemic plants and animals, polluting and draining billions of litres of groundwater, and obliterating the sacred Doongmabulla Springs system. These effects would be irreversible.
The Wangan and Jagalingou people (W&J) have never given their free, prior and informed consent to Adani’s coal mine. W&J have said no to Adani four times and waged a long battle against Adani in the courts.
Adani have actively worked to divide W&J people to claim they consent to the mine, engineering sham meetings, stacked with people who were not part of their native title claim group. Adani have bankrupted senior W&J leader Adrian Burragubba and even filed a court order making it illegal for W&J people to practice culture on their own country.
In 2021 Adani tried to bury an RMIT study that found Adani violated international human rights law in its interactions with W&J. The study recommended that mine construction be suspended until Traditional Owners gave their consent. The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has also requested Adani’s mine be suspended because it may violate Indigenous rights.
The impacts of Adani’s coal project also extend to Juru, Jaanga and Birri country. The Federal Court ruled in 2018 that Adani had not followed proper processes in conducting cultural heritage surveys at its Abbot Point site. Despite the concern of Juru Elders that cultural sites, including rock art and burial sites, are threatened from Adani’s proposed rail line and port expansion, Adani said they were prepared to start work without their consent.
In India, Adani’s coal mines and power stations threaten the ancestral homelands of Indigenous Adivasi people, including in Godda, Jharkhand, where Adani are displacing thousands of Adivasi people to build a new coal station and burn Australian coal. Local people resisting the takeover of their land have had their land stolen, their crops destroyed, and been beaten by police. A group of villagers have filed a legal challenge in the Jharkhand High Court to strike down Adani’s contentious acquisition of fertile farmlands, saying the entire acquisition process had been “marked by illegalities and irregularities” and was forced through with "coercion, fraud and undue influence."
