The Horizontal Falls are one of Australia’s strangest natural attractions, a unique blend of coastal geography and powerful tidal forces that visitors pay big money to see up close.
But all that is about to change.
Located at Talbot Bay, a remote spot on the country’s northwestern coastline, the falls are created when surges of seawater pour between two narrow cliff gaps, creating a swell of up to four meters that resembles a waterfall.
For decades, tours have pierced these gaps on powerful boats, much to the dismay of the area’s Indigenous Traditional Owners, who say the site is sacred.
It’s not the only reason the boat tours are controversial. In May 2022 one boat hit the rocks resulting in passenger injuries and triggering a major rescue operation. The incident led to calls to halt the tours for safety reasons.
Although the boat trips have continued, the concerns of the Indigenous Traditional Owners have now been heeded, with Western Australia, the state in which the falls are situated, saying they will be banned in 2028 out of respect.
Maybe I was too subtle then. To spell it out more clearly: I don’t think the majority of places that any ancient culture considers sacred should be blocked from the public. I can understand not wanting folks traipsing over burial mounds that were actually built by their ancestors, but if someone is going to say “No you can’t go to Niagara falls!”, because their 35th great grandpa thought the view was divinely inspired, that’s just dumb.
It is the privilege of the oppressor to decide when history begins.
I’m paraphrasing a fictional character from a book, but the point stands.
You’re saying that their history and beliefs don’t matter because it infringes on a public good, but you leave out the context where these “public lands” were stolen from the indigenous people through a multigenerational campaign of genocide, and racial subjugation.
So… you find this meager apology and repatriation of some sacred lands to the wronged party here to be intolerable, and unjust?
What if their 34th, 33rd, 32nd, 31st, 30th, 29th, 28th, 27th, 26th, 25th, 24th, 23rd, 22nd, 21st, 20th, 19th, 18th, 17th, 16th, 15th, 14th, 13th, 12th, 11th, 10th, 9th, 8th, 7th, 6th, 5th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd and 1st great grandpa along with their father too all see a place as sacred to their culture?
Are you suggesting that because a place was declared sacred long ago that it has some kind of statute of limitations on being sacred that expires after a certain amount of time? Or, using the US an example, are you suggesting that because the native peoples and cultures that lived here before Europeans invaded were subject to a genocide and mass land theft that their claim to a place being sacred is now forfeit? What are you actually saying?
Your argument is nothing more than a hollow appeal to being willfully ignorant, and crucially you utterly fail to realize how vitally important indigenous cultures have been to preservation of precious natural spaces all over the world. Without indigenous people defending the lands they consider sacred there would be an unbelievable amount more of irreversible ecological destruction wrought by modern capitalism by this point and that is just simply a fact. If you don’t care about the preservation of beautiful, natural spaces… well then I am damn happy there are indigenous land protectors out there who are devoted to pissing people like you off by refusing to let the cultural context of the landscape around them be erased by lazy people who can’t be bothered to understand history or environmentalism.
Sure, if you want to consider native beliefs silly or dumb, whatever, I could care less but you are just factually wrong if you don’t understand the immense material benefit to us all (and our children) from indigenous cultures defending the preservation of our most beautiful and rare natural landscapes.
They didn’t build it anymore then 35 did, so I’m not understanding what counterpoint you’re trying to put forth here. My point was fairly clear, and if you’re only going to willfully misinterpret it, then I’m not sure you’re someone I want to engage with.
Oh ok, so your argument is if indigenous peoples built Niagra Falls thennn they could claim it was sacred site to their culture.
…got it
That makes total sense, it is a commonly accepted fact among all major religions and cultures of the world that something can only be sacred if it was built by human hands. Forgot about that one!
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Sacred implies supernaturality. Since that isn’t actually a thing, nothing is sacred. It’s as valid for one person to say they think something is not sacred as it is for someone to say they think it is.
At the end of the day, the argument should be that it is unique and should be preserved because of its uniqueness. That’s a much more palatable and understandable position to take.
People in Congress refer to the US Capitol as a “Sacred” space. Yes, that’s right. It has nothing to do with gods or supernatural things. It is referred to that way specifically because it is so important to the people.
How about you set aside your “palatability” of an idea and instead respect other’s truth about it instead? Or is that too selfless for you?
You’ve decided that you have the right to impose your view over the views of the people who have traditionally lived in these places. You have decided that your view is the one that matters and damned those who have always occupied a space.
That is what it boils down to doesn’t it.
Sometimes you can get these fools mad enough by simply asking them to explain their logic that they just come right out and say it which is always funny. It’s like keeping this mask on of empathy and understanding for others is an uncomfortable burden that they just have to rip off when they get mad enough because they can’t take one more second of it.
These people always seem so self righteous and oddly relieved in the moment they finally rip their mask off and stop pretending to care or have empathy. It is like watching someone rip off a N95 in relief after they walk outside into an open space where they can safely take their mask off after being inside a crowded space for hours.