The head of a Pilbara native title group says she had "excellent" relationships with Rio Tinto's senior executives and was disappointed by their resignations following the destruction of the sacred Juukan Gorge site.
A parliamentary committee investigating the blasting of the 46,000-year-old rock shelters heard evidence on Monday from the Robe River Kuruma Aboriginal Corporation.
MPs earlier met with representatives of the neighbouring Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) people, the Traditional Owners of Juukan Gorge.
Members of the Northern Australia Committee will on Tuesday visit the Juukan sites to assess the damage for themselves.
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Rio's chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques, corporate relations chief Simone Niven and iron ore boss Chris Salisbury all resigned in September amid global outrage and significant investor pressure following the Juukan incident.
Robe River Kuruma AC chief executive Sara Slattery, a Traditional Owner whose group has land use agreements with numerous mining companies including Rio Tinto, questioned the executive changes.
"In regards to Chris and J-S, I built excellent relationships with those two and I'm quite disappointed and surprised that their roles were terminated before the end of this inquiry," she told the inquiry.
"We all make mistakes at the end of the day but I think people should be given an opportunity to correct those mistakes and clean up the mess that they made.
"I had conversations with them after this and I honestly felt that they were truly hurt (but) also understood where people were coming from."
Ms Slattery said RRKAC had only recently felt like it had a seat at the table when it came to negotiating land use agreements, and that was largely down to individual relationships.
"I understand that corporate Australia and the investors all wanted some kind of outcome. But where were all of these people before?" she said.
"Why weren't they listening to Aboriginal people back then? It seems to me everybody's jumping up and down now. Where were these people six months ago?"
Noting that the Robe River Kuruma also had sacred sites at risk from mining activity, Ms Slattery said much of the royalties RRKAC received from land use agreements were spent on governance requirements and staff costs.
"There is, I suppose, a misconception amongst Australians that Aboriginal people are rich because we all have mining agreements," she said.
"Our concern amongst the Robe River Kuruma people is the collective impact of mining. Not only do we have Rio but we have everybody else out on country too, and we worry about what will be left for our children, our grandchildren.
"There will be nothing left for them eventually."
