Aboriginal land and land rights

The tide of history can never take away our connection to land, because it is a spiritual connection and at a higher level. [...] Our law and spirituality is intertwined with the land, the people and creation and this forms our culture and our sovereignty.—Wadjularbinna, Gungalidda Elder (Gulf of Carpentaria) [1]

Carbon Farming a new opportunity

The plans of the Australian government to introduce a carbon tax can open up new opportunities for Aboriginal people manage emissions and profit from the on-selling of any emission reductions.

The government plans to assist Aboriginal people to participate in the Indigenous Carbon Farming Fund [13]. Carbon farming projects could for example conduct cool, prescribed burns on country which reduce the emissions generated into the atmosphere compared to an out-of-control wildfire. The emissions saved could then be on-sold to industry.

This will deliver economic benefits to Aboriginal communities, help provide land management jobs and strengthen Aboriginal people's cultural ties to country while improving the biodiversity of the environment [13].

Aboriginal people manage around 20% of Australia's land mass [13].

The carbon market is the next big opportunity for Aboriginal people and puts us on the path to economic independence. —Nolan Hunter, acting chief executive, Kimberley Land Council [13]

Land and law

Each state and territory treats Aboriginal land rights slightly differently and not all jurisdictions have a formal process for making claims to land [5]. Only the Northern Territory, Queensland and New South Wales have a formal claims process.

In Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria, Aboriginal land trusts have been established to acquire, manage and use land for the benefit of Aboriginal people.

In Queensland, land can be transferred to an Aboriginal community under the state's Aboriginal Land Act, but the community does not hold freehold title on the land which means they cannot sell or mortgage the land, and there are restrictions on leasing it.

In NSW and the NT, claimable land needs to be unoccupied and "not likely to be needed for residential purposes" [5].

To prove ownership Aboriginal landowners have to pay anthropologists and surveys to prove their traditional relationship and formal land boundaries. This can be an expensive process.

Returning land to Aboriginal people will always be a difficult process as Aboriginal interests are in competition to commercial interests. Worldwide, the majority of the world's remaining natural resources—minerals, freshwater, potential energy sources, etc.— are found within Aboriginal peoples' territories [12].

The big wait for land claims

By law there is no requirement in any of the three jurisdictions with a formal claims process to be resolved in a timely manner. This has led to more than 10,000 land claims waiting to be determined in NSW alone [5].

Development applications (what you would submit if you want to work on your home or business) in Tasmania take an average of 28 days to be processed. Many claims under the NSW Aboriginal Land Rights Act are in the system for 18 to 20 years before they are considered! [5].

Even if a land claim makes it through the system there is a chance that land use conditions are changed and the outcome for Aboriginal people is poor. In the years that claimants wait for a decision "significant conditions" can be attached to the claim.

Indigenous Protected Areas

Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs) are one way Aboriginal people can meet their cultural responsibility to care for their country and to pass on their knowledge about the land and its resources to future generations [8].

Through Indigenous Protected Areas, Indigenous communities manage their land to protect its plants, animals and cultural sites. For example, they work to control threats such as weeds, feral animals and wildfire.

Since Indigenous Protected Areas were first championed in the early 1990s, 25 IPAs have been declared in Australia covering more than 20 million hectares - an area more than twice the size of Tasmania. 37 IPAs were under development in 2008 [9].

Australia's 25 declared IPAs range from the turquoise waters of the Dhimurru IPA in the Gulf of Carpentaria to the arid beauty of Australia's first IPA at Nantawarrina in South Australia.

The stories of Australia's first 23 IPAs are told in the book Growing Up Strong, the first 10 years of Indigenous Protected Areas in Australia.

Bush tucker: Collecting bush onions

The following video shows a group of Aboriginal students from Wangkatjungka School, led by teachers of the Department of Education, driving out into the bush to search for bush onions, or jurnta (pronounced 'yurnda'). Bush onions are an important source of protein.

The students themselves shot and comment this video. The Wangkatjungka community is located about 120 kms south-east of Fitzroy Crossing in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.

Aboriginal land and tourism

Tourism is an industry where Aboriginal people can use the intimate knowledge of their land to introduce international tourists to their culture and customs. This creates Indigenous jobs and satisfies the large appetite of overseas visitors for an 'authentic' Indigenous experience.

Maitland Parker is a Punjima Aboriginal man of Western Australia's Pilbara region and a ranger in the Karijini National Park. "People who come to the park express their admiration of the natural beauty," he says. "Many are overseas visitors from Switzerland, Germany and many other countries. This gives us a good feeling and in return we give them the Aboriginal history of some of the places. As soon as they see [fellow ranger] Johnny or me and our Ranger badge, they want to talk to us. They ask me all sorts of questions including those which show that they are uncertain of whether I am an Aboriginal. All of this supports our view that there is need for more Aboriginal Rangers in the park." [10]

"All my training in the bush skills of our culture helps me tremendously as a park ranger," explains Maitland. "I believe as an Aboriginal I see the bush differently to people of a different background. I think that I am constantly looking at and through the bush, looking for signs and automatically interpreting what I see. It's an automatic coordination of my facilities to interpret the bush. On this basis I can tell people what is happening in the fauna and flora of the bush." [10]

Aboriginal bush trackers

Aboriginal bush trackers have been part of Australia's history almost from the beginning of white exploration of the country. Trackers helped non-Indigenous people to find water and orient themselves in the vast country, but also chased and caught convicts (and fellow Aboriginal people) on the run.

Maitland Parker remembers: "Tracking is an art-form for the Indigenous people. Our Aboriginal trackers have been exploited for years by this society. They are asked to solve complicated problems of finding people in harsh environments and in the end are given a 'thank you', at the most. Money is never mentioned. As experts they should be paid appropriately. The non-Aboriginal society has to stop this exploitation of our skills." [10]

Northern Territory (NT) Land Rights Act

The NT Land Rights Act was introduced on 16 October 1975 and became law in 1976. Under the act, more than 50% of the Northern Territory was returned to traditional Aboriginal owners in the following 30 years.

The NT Land Rights Act gives Aboriginal people a strong say over what should happen on their land, through the principle of informed consent. It allows traditional owners to keep their culture strong and to negotiate constructively with governments and developers over mining and infrastructure projects.

The Act was a consequence of the Wave Hill walk-off in which 200 Aboriginal people had walked off a cattle station. Initially fighting for equal wages their protest soon turned to the core issue, land rights.

In 2006 this act was amended significantly to the worse of Aboriginal people. It allows an unspecified "government entity" to control townships for 99 years and sublease blocks to whomever it wants. Aboriginal people are no longer in control, and, to cap it all, the costs for implementing this policy will be covered by the Aboriginal Benefits Account (which was established for the benefit of Indigenous peoples and funded by mining activities on their land). [2]

Out of respect for Aboriginal culture I use Indigenous sources as much as possible.
[1] Koori Mail 390 (6/12/2006) p.26 [2] Antar NSW Newsletter 8/2006 [3] 'Sign on the dotted line saves spectacular rock art', SMH 25/6/2009 [4] 'Franklin battle remembered', Koori Mail 430, p.4 [5] 'No-one can benefit from locked-up land', Koori Mail 498 p.27 [6] 'No justice for Palm Island', NIT 30/10/2008 p.19 [7] 'Heritage plea', Koori Mail 438 p.26 [8] 'Indigenous Protected Areas', Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, www.environment.gov.au/indigenous/ipa/, 13/12/2008 [9] 'Governments urged to help protect areas', Koori Mail 440 p.15 [10] 'Karijini Mirlimirli', Noel Olive, Fremantle Arts Centre Press 1997 pp.120 [11] 'Interview with Elma Kris, Choreographer and Dancer', Bangarra newsletter, 5/2011 [12] 'Indigenous views heard at UN forum in New York', Koori Mail 401 p.31 [13] 'Groups heap praise on carbon package', Koori Mail 506 p.6