Indigenous rally against heritage changes

Proposed changes to the West Australian Aboriginal Heritage Act will have a significant detrimental and long-term effect on indigenous culture, a spokesman says.

The changes will speed up the approval process for mining and other development by giving the chief executive of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs authority to declare whether or not an Aboriginal heritage site exists.

About 70 traditional owners travelled to parliament from the Kimberley, South West and central coastal regions to meet Indigenous Affairs Minister Peter Collier and others on Thursday, and present a petition signed by 1600 people.

Kimberley Land Council chairman Anthony Watson said proposed changes to the act were discriminatory and disregarded Aboriginal people and their right to care for their heritage.

"The proposed changes lock Aboriginal people out of the process and put the decision-making power into the hands of a government bureaucrat, who will have the final say on the destruction of sites and our cultural heritage," he said.

Mr Watson said it was essential that traditional owners were involved in the management of Aboriginal heritage.

He also used the meeting with Mr Collier as an opportunity to discuss plans to close up to 150 small Aboriginal communities, saying indigenous people in WA were "under attack" by a state government trying to undermine their rights.

Asked in parliament by opposition Aboriginal affairs spokesman Ben Wyatt when the WA government would start consulting indigenous communities about the changes, Premier Colin Barnett said: "From now on".