In a landmark meeting in the Northern Territory, Indigenous land
and sea managers from northern Australia came together recently to
formally endorse an alliance of Australia’s peak Aboriginal
land councils to further the interests of Traditional Owners and
their communities in the maintenance of land and sea country.
“We are coming together to form one voice for land and sea
management for Northern Australia”
Northern Australia Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance
(NAILSMA) co-ordinator Joe Morrison said the recent meeting held at
Innesvale Station, owned by the Menggen Aboriginal Land Trust, 145
km south-west of Katherine, represented a new alliance in the north
of the country.
“There already exists over 30 ranger groups in the Northern
Territory alone, focusing on local issues and this meeting is to
develop an alliance in the formal sense, across state
boundaries.”
Morrison said core members of the alliance the Northern
Territory-based Northern Land Council (NLC), the Western
Australia-based Kimberley Land Council (KLC), Queensland-based
Carpentaria Land Council, the Cape York-based Balkanu Aboriginal
Corporation would give Indigenous land and sea managers ‘on
the ground’ a voice at a higher level when negotiating with
State/ Territory and Federal Governments, and industry groups.
NAILSMA representative on the Tropical Savannas CRC Board, Peter
Yu, said it was a historic time in Australia in relation to the
future use, management and access to Aboriginal-controlled land.
“It’s a new era, a watershed period, where there exists
an opportunity to be better organised to assert traditional
ownership and cultural knowledge,” Yu said.
Yu said that a lot of intellectual knowledge, and knowledge of
cultural and land management practices, were being lost through the
passing of too many Aboriginal Elders.
He said that the existing knowledge systems held by Elders and
their families had to be recognised in financial terms.
“We have to repay the old people in real terms, not just in
words and rhetoric,” Yu said.
An issue repeatedly raised throughout the two-day meeting was the
lack of adequate wages for Indigenous rangers, who mostly receive
CDEP wages, or ‘top-up’ payments, coupled with a lack
of recognised qualifications.
Another issue discussed were recent reports of
‘overharvesting’ of dugong and sea turtles by
Traditional Owners, which, delegates said, failed to acknowledge
the impacts on numbers from coastal development, irrigation
run-off, and strikes by leisure and commercial sea craft.
To clarify and quantify the issue, NAILSMA has secured $3.8 million
in funding to conduct dugong and turtle research across northern
Australia. Other issues also included fire management, intellectual
property, weed and feral animal management, aquaculture, coastcare,
eco-tourism, sustainable use of wildlife and bushfoods, transfer of
traditional knowledge from Elders to young people, fostering
leadership amongst young people and customary use of native
resources. NLCs ‘Caring for Country’ manager Paul Josif
said the job of land councils was to provide ongoing support for
ranger groups, and to initiate partnerships between NAILSMA and
bodies such as Australian Quarantine, Australian Customs,
universities, and the World Wide Fund for Nature.
“As an alliance NAILSMA will also look at accessing new
streams of funding to protect Indigenous knowledge, and to help
Indigenous peoples get back to country and make a living off their
country, if that is their intention,” Josif said. “We
are also looking at issues such as increased Indigenous control
over research funding, and increased Indigenous participation in
research work.”
Josif said Aboriginal people were the biggest landowners in
northern Australia, and by that fact alone should have the primary
role in managing coastlines and inland areas.
Organisers said membership is still open, and were expecting the
Torres Strait Regional Authority (TSRA) to come on board in the
future.
NAILSMA is expecting to hold its next full meeting in the dry
season next year, where it will present its board structure to
stakeholders. Report by Todd Condie
Courtesy of the Northern Land Council
Photo: Todd Condie
Djelk Women Rangers
Tommy George
Peter Yu, traditional owner Billy Harney & Joe Morrison
Photo: Todd Condie
