Indigenous elders should be acknowledged for their ongoing role in the resolution of native title claims, National Native Title Tribunal President Graeme Neate said today.
“This year’s NAIDOC Week theme ‘Honouring our elders, nurturing our youth’ is particularly relevant to native title, where the work of the elders is directly related to achieving positive native title outcomes and the nurturing of the generations to follow,” Mr Neate said.
Native title applications succeed where there is evidence of the claimants’ ongoing traditional connection to country.
“Elders may be the only people who know fully about their group’s history, and traditional laws and customs. To tell their stories and explain about places of significance they participate in mediation conferences or attend court hearings, sometimes on-country in harsh environments,” Mr Neate said.
“Sadly, the process for resolving claims can take so long that some old people don’t live to see the outcome of their work. Commemorative silences to honour elders who have passed away are not uncommon at ceremonies associated with determinations of native title.”
The legacy of those elders to future generations is through the recognition of their native title rights and in agreements, such as indigenous land use agreements.
“The recent Kuuku Ya’u determination in Queensland is an example of how native title determinations can have a direct effect on the nurturing of the next generation,” Mr Neate said.
“While negotiating about the Kuuku Ya’u People’s native title, agreements were developed about how parties would work together to care for the marine park on the Great Barrier Reef, national parks, and in arrangements with local governments. In this way, native title links can benefit communities socially, culturally and potentially economically.”
New approaches to native title in Australia are being developed to meet the needs of parties. The new Victorian Native Title Settlement Framework and the likely amendments to the Native Title Act are among these.
“However, there remains an important role for elders, and I join other Australians in honouring them, especially this week,” Mr Neate said. |