The AFL are set to make a huge financial decision to drop Rio Tinto as a sponsor of its Indigenous football programs after the mining company destroyed a 46,000-year-old sacred Aboriginal site earlier this year.
According to The Age, the deal is reportedly worth up to $1.5 million for the league and the search is underway for another sponsor to step in to fund the programs, including the Flying Boomerangs (boys), the Woomeras (girls) and the Footy Means Business program for 18-24-year-old Indigenous players. Though it has yet to be ratified by the AFL Commission, it's believed the move will be approved, with support from top executives including AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan.
Rio Tinto was heavily criticised after it emerged in May that they had knowingly blown up a historic site at Juukan Gorge in Western Australia's Pilbara region, in a bid to uncover iron ore. The controversy led to a Senate inquiry, and three leading figures at the company, including the chief executive, to resign.
The Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people told the Senate inquiry that Rio Tinto's actions caused "immeasurable cultural and spiritual loss and profound grief" with the ancient rock shelters housing significant archaeological finds including grinding stones, a bone sharpened into a tool and 4000-year-old braided hair.
"We are sorry for the distress we have caused," the company said in a statement in the aftermath.
"Our relationship with the PKKP matters a lot to Rio Tinto, having worked together for many years.
"We will continue to work with the PKKP to learn from what has taken place and strengthen our partnership.
"As a matter of urgency, we are reviewing the plans of all other sites in the Juukan Gorge area."
Around the same time, another mining giant BHP was forced to stop the destruction of 40 Indigenous heritage sites following an investigation by The Guardian that revealed they were fully aware of the opposition from traditional owners of the land.
Essendon Bombers star Joe Daniher was one of many within the AFL community to criticise the league for not walking the walk after talking the talk during the Black Lives Matter movement resurgence earlier this year, in regards to their relationship with companies like Rio Tinto.
"We need to hold the industry that I'm in, the AFL, accountable to the change we want to see and the partners they choose to partner with to a higher standard," he told the Sydney Morning Herald in June.
"And the people within those organisations need to be held to a higher standard to make meaningful change. We're quite good as an industry at using our voice for positive change... [but] if we're going to see long-lasting, systemic change, there needs to be a higher standard that we as an industry hold ourselves accountable to."
Rio Tinto's AFL partnership - which has lasted 10 years - was up for renewal this year before the league's decision to cut ties.
The Age reported that "AFL's head of inclusion, Tanya Hosch, consulted widely with Indigenous leaders and experts on the Rio Tinto issue" before the sponsorship agreement with the company was planned to end.
Meanwhile, BHP remains a $5 million sponsor of the AFLW.
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