Forrest donations and false charity

Such misgivings did not stop there, for behind Forrest's wealth lies the eager hand of historical appropriation, the coloniser's prerogative to make good the use of natural resources. Forrest's great-grand-uncle, Sir John Forrest, set the trend as a plundering pioneer when he took some 2000 hectares of Crown land, offering the Indigenous inhabitants poor compensation: the possibility of employment and a paternal patronage.

This state of affairs was incarnated in modern form, with West Australia's Yindjibarndi people in the Pilbara battling FMG over a certain matter of compensation for the site where the Solomon Mine is located. All Forrest was doing, claimed Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation CEO Michael Woodley, was surrendering money "from the country that he's mining, which belongs to the Yindjibarndi people, and other traditional owner groups as well around the Pilbara."

Initial negotiations begun in 2008 with 700 traditional owners for a meagre 0.5 percent of mining royalties collapsed. Forrest preferred to keep matters down to standing promise of cash payments capped at $4 million a year, with $6.5 million promised in terms of business opportunities, training, jobs and housing. Certainly a more generous offer than that of his predecessors, but still not much.

The impression left by FMG and Forrest's gesture is a hollow one, a matter of surrendering loot and plunder obtained from a line of work that is becoming increasingly unpopular. It could even be construed as a form of elaborate money laundering. Twiggy may have seen the writing on the wall: best make a name in the philanthropy books now when matters are easy, before it all goes under.