| The Wik and Wik Way People completed the fourth stage of their journey towards native title recognition on Queensland’s Cape York Peninsula when the National Native Title Tribunal registered an indigenous land use agreement (ILUA) this week.
They developed the ILUA with the Cook Shire Council during negotiations that led to a consent determination on 29 July which recognised the Wik and Wik Way People’s native title rights over a further 1,150 sq km of their claimed area on the west coast of Cape York Peninsula. The ILUA gives them clarity about how they will go about exercising their respective rights in the section of the determination area that falls within the Cook Shire.
National Native Title Tribunal Member, Bob Faulkner, said the registration of the ILUA with the Tribunal was the last step in the agreement making process – finalising the ILUA and making it legally binding.
“The registration of this ILUA is also significant as it brings into effect the native title determination that the Federal Court made on 29 July,” he said.
“Parties to the claim agreed that the consent determination would be conditional on the registration of this ILUA, therefore the native title rights recognised through the determination are now legally confirmed. These include the right to access the determination area to camp, hunt, gather, fish, protect sacred sites, conduct ceremonies and erect structures to live in.
“The Wik and Wik Way People and the Council can now carry out all aspects of their ILUA which clarifies how the Council’s plans for infrastructure and development in the Wik and Wik Way People’s traditional areas can proceed.”
The consent determination was the fourth achieved by the Wik and Wik Way People following their famous 1996 victory in the High Court which found, for the first time, that native title could exist on some types of pastoral leases. They are now working towards a fifth and final consent determination over the remainder of their traditional lands.
*ILUAs are legally binding agreements about the use and management of land, made between Indigenous groups and others with interests in a particular area. ILUAs are practical and flexible as they are developed to suit the different needs of the groups and the land issues they’re working through. |