The Willandra Lakes ancestral remains are a central part of the outstanding universal values of the Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area. While the story of Mungo lady and Mungo man are known to many Australians, there are 106 voices from that ancient landscape that have not been told and will be reburied next week by NSW heritage staff.  To preserve our shared human heritage, and to strengthen our community's connection to our deep past many Aboriginal people and researchers have argued for a Keeping Place instead of reburial. The keeping place and associated education centre is desperately needed and will support greater Aboriginal employment in the World Heritage Area. This site, coupled with an educational centre, will not only respect the first Australians but contribute to the welfare of Aboriginal people through employment and educational opportunities.

The establishment of such a Keeping Place is incredibly relevant to understanding the world heritage of human origins. These ancestors bear the stories of our shared beginnings, those of the first Australians, stories that need to be acknowledged and preserved. Australia is home to some of the oldest modern human remains outside of Africa. Mungo Man and Mungo Lady, found in Lake Mungo, are dated to be about 40,000 years old. They provide critical insights into early human history, and also the complexity of Aboriginal society, making them of immense value to humanity. However, without a Keeping Place to appropriately house these ancient people, we run a high risk of loss of their voices through reburial - a loss that would be felt by all humanity. Gary Pappin from the Mutthi Mutthi at the World Archaeology Congress in Prague spoke of the cultural erasure that would result of the reburial. His late mother Mary Pappin spoke of the importance of the keeping place as a means of going back to the ancestors to ask more questions when the time was right. Michael Young of the Barkandji has compared the reburial to the destruction of 40,000 year old Jukan Gorge. 

The creation of the Keeping Place and an associated education centre will provide much-needed employment opportunities for Aboriginal people in the region, fostering self-sufficiency and boosting the regional economy. More importantly, it gives us a platform to tell the stories of the ancient first Australians, providing them with a deep time voice and shattering the silent echo of their history. The Federal Government invested $90m in the Sir John Monash Centre at Villers-Bretonneux surely a similar education centre could be funded at the Willandra? 

Please join me in calling for the establishment of the keeping place and education centre. Sign this petition as a pledge of your support to safeguard our shared world  heritage and strengthen the community of the first Australians, supporting those Aboriginal people who have argued for many decades for a keeping place.