ABC North West recently interviewed our MD, Kylie Chalmers. Here is an extract from the interview where Kylie talks about Pilbara Solar, our mission and our first renewable energy project.
Right now there is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for this as this new [renewable energy] industry is rolled out to really make a change. Most of the prime land for these large-scale renewable energy projects is First Nations land. How do we create an opportunity from this rather than it being a burden? The native title process has been a long road for a lot of communities and they get to the end and they set up a Corporation and very few have income. Very few Aboriginal communities have assets. There hasn’t been the ability to own assets. They are so far behind on the Monopoly board of life compared to other non Aboriginal people that have lived here. Land rights, Native Title Rights, it’s one of the few assets Aboriginal People have. So their options are to negotiate land access for someone else to profit from it. And I’m not underselling that. To do that well… [and] to do that at a really high level of engagement is really important…but alternative is for First Nations people to profit from their own projects on their own land. Pilbara Solar is assisting First Nations people to build their own projects.
