ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the company's rehabilitation practices in relation to a changing social and regulatory environment. It demonstrates that rehabilitation practices are not simply technical in nature, but also socially and politically contingent. Recent assertions by Rio Tinto Alcan Weipa (RTAW) their current rehabilitation practices align with Traditional Owners' values relating to the Aboriginal English concept of "Country" and describe how the company negotiates the statutory and ideological paradigms that it uses to define and perform rehabilitation success. The chapter describes Alngith people's future aspirations for their land. Alngith people strongly advocate for rehabilitation to re-create the pre-mining ecosystem, in other circumstances they express their desire to create alternative land uses not necessarily dependent on the return of native species. The chapter also suggests that paying close attention to the multiple ways that Indigenous peoples wish to use landscapes is critical; discrepancies in how Indigenous speakers vocalize their aspirations highlight the dangers of uncritically conflating cultural values with ecological values.
