The Advertiser Women's secrets about bridge found on disk By Court Reporter KATE UREN 11aug00 CONFIDENTIAL appendices detailing the Hindmarsh Island bridge "secret women's business" have been uncovered four years after they were believed to have been destroyed. The controversial appendices sparked a lengthy legal battle in 1994 after the previous Labor federal government banned construction of the bridge on the basis of their contents. It had been widely believed the only copies of the appendices were burnt by the custodian of the material, Doreen Kartinyeri, in 1996. But it has been revealed in the Federal Court that a computer disk believed to contain the text of the two appendices has been in the possession of the acting director of the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement, Sandra Saunders. An envelope containing the disk and two books of field notes written by a University of Adelaide anthropologist engaged by the ALRM to report on the "secret women's business", Deane Fergie, has been subpoenaed by marina developers Tom and Wendy Chapman in their case for $20 million in compensation over the delayed construction of the bridge. Justice John Von Doussa yesterday chose to subpoena the documents rather than make Ms Saunders hand them over after giving evidence on Monday, which would have placed her in contempt of court if she had refused. On Monday, Ms Saunders told the court she received a "big brown packet with lots of papers in it" in 1995 or 1996 after a state royal commission investigated the "secret women's business". The commission found the material had been fabricated by Mrs Kartinyeri and a group of Ngarrindjeri women to stop the bridge from being built. Ms Saunders said Mrs Kartinyeri destroyed the papers in 1996 but "no one even knew that a disk was there until Doreen had opened the stuff and burnt what she wanted". Ms Saunders said the disk had been placed in safekeeping and was now at her house. Dr Fergie's field notebooks of June, 1994, detailing discussions she had with Ngarrindjeri women, were also there. Ms Saunders said the Aboriginal custodians of the secret women's business, including Mrs Kartinyeri, had refused to hand the books over to Dr Fergie despite requests. "For me to actually hand over the information actually breaks the trust of the people in the community and I would never, ever have the trust of those women or any of the Aboriginal people involved in this case again," she said. Lawyers for the Chapmans became aware of the disk's existence last week and applied for it to be subpoenaed. Ms Saunders has until Monday to produce the disk to the Chapmans' legal team. The case � now in its sixth month � is continuing. -- ********************************** 'Click' to protect the rainforest: Make the Rainforest Site your homepage! http://www.therainforestsite.com/ ********************************** ------------------------------------------------------ RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/
