Traditional Custodians of the Pilbara, Western Australia. Majority owners of Jina Rent a Car. A Nation whose connection to country stretches back more than 50,000 years — and whose economic future this business is part of building.
Acknowledgement of Country. Jina Rent a Car acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of all the countries on which we operate — including the Yindjibarndi Nation, the Far West Coast peoples, and all First Nations groups whose country our locations, routes and operations pass through. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging, and acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded.
The Yindjibarndi Nation are the Traditional Custodians of a vast and ancient landscape in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Their country centres on the Fortescue River and its tributaries, spanning from the rugged gorges and ranges of the Hamersley Range in the south — one of the oldest landscapes on earth — northward through spinifex plains.
This is a country of extraordinary scale and diversity. The Hamersley Range rises from the flat iron-red plains in formations that are over two and a half billion years old. The Fortescue River and its tributaries cut through the range, creating the deep gorges and waterholes that have sustained life — human and otherwise — for millennia.
The Yindjibarndi have not simply lived on this country — they have known it, named it, mapped it in song and story, and held responsibility for its care for more than 50,000 years. Every feature of the landscape carries meaning: waterholes, ranges, river bends, rock formations — all of it is part of a living geography that belongs to the Yindjibarndi people as much as it belongs to the earth itself.
"Country is not something you own. It is something you belong to."
Today, Yindjibarndi country is also the site of some of Australia's most significant iron ore operations — the mines of the Pilbara that underpin much of Australia's national export revenue. The Yindjibarndi Nation navigates that reality with clear eyes: asserting their rights, negotiating their interests, and building economic structures — like Jina — that ensure the wealth of the Pilbara generates genuine returns for its Traditional Custodians.
The word jina comes from the Yindjibarndi language. It means foot — and in the context of this business, it carries the image of a footprint left on country. A mark that says: we were here, we are here, we will continue to be here.
Jina Rent a Car operates from Karratha, Port Hedland, Newman and Gap Ridge — locations across the Pilbara, close to Yindjibarndi country. The business is not a visitor on this country. It is an expression of the Yindjibarndi Nation's determination to participate in the economic life of the Pilbara on their own terms.
The Yindjibarndi Nation are majority owners of Cedrent Enterprises Pty Ltd, which trades as Jina Rent a Car. When corporate clients, mine site operators and travellers choose Jina, they are choosing to put their spend directly into the hands of the people whose country they are working on.
Our Ownership
The Yindjibarndi Nation is governed through two corporations: the Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation (YAC) and the Yindjibarndi Ngurra Aboriginal Corporation (YNAC). Together, they manage and coordinate the Nation's strategic work across three focus areas — community, culture and commerce — guiding the Yindjibarndi Nation's collective journey toward self-determination and economic sovereignty.
YAC leads the Nation's engagement with government, industry and the legal system — including the landmark native title determinations and the ongoing compensation case against Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) for unpaid royalties and damage to sacred sites. YNAC focuses on country management, homelands and the Nation's cultural obligations to ngurra.
Cultural documentation and preservation is led by the Juluwarlu Group Aboriginal Corporation — the body responsible for collecting, sustaining and promoting Yindjibarndi culture, language, genealogy and history. Juluwarlu created the Wanthiwa app, which brings the Yindjibarndi creation story to life through animation narrated in English and Yindjibarndi, making the Nation's 50,000-year-old heritage accessible to community and the world.
Jina Rent a Car's ownership structure is directly aligned with the Yindjibarndi Nation's commerce focus — building wealth from culturally responsible enterprise on country, and ensuring that returns flow equitably to the community.
Visit Yindjibarndi NationThe Yindjibarndi Nation's vision, as stated on their own website, is simple: a unified and cohesive community free from violence and struggle, with the ability to access opportunity and resources to support Elders and youth, and raise happy, healthy families. Building toward that vision through commerce is where Jina fits.
The Nation is also actively supporting a homeland movement — enabling Yindjibarndi people to return to country and live there — and is developing renewable energy projects through the Yindjibarndi Energy Corporation in partnership with ACEN. These are the structures of a nation building its future on its own terms.
For organisations operating in the Pilbara — whether in mining, resources, construction or any other sector — engaging respectfully with the Yindjibarndi Nation and its governing bodies is not simply a compliance requirement. It is the foundation of a productive and sustainable relationship with the people whose country you are working on.
