Indigenous activists have criticised the United Nations for placing Australia’s convict sites on the World Heritage List.

UNESCO has announced that 11 sites, including Port Arthur, Hyde Park Barracks and Fremantle Prison, should be preserved because of their “outstanding universal value”.

Australia already has 17 World Heritage areas, but only two are buildings.

The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre says UNESCO should not list any more “white Australian” sites while Aboriginal history is being neglected and destroyed.

But UNESCO says the sites are the best surviving examples of large-scale convict transportation and the colonial expansion of European powers through the presence and labour of prisoners.

Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre legal director Michael Mansell has written to UNESCO asking it not to approve Australia’s nomination due to the involvement of the Tasmanian Government.

Mr Mansell says it’s hypocritical for Tasmania to seek heritage protection for European sites when it destroyed an Aboriginal midden to build a prison wall.

via abc online