About 52 000 hectares on the Cox Peninsula near Darwin in northern Australia will become Aboriginal land under a “historic” agreement.
The Kenbi land claim is the longest-running case under Australia’s Land Rights Act.
The settlement agreement includes an additional 13 000 hectares of freehold title for the Kenbi traditional owners, which the indigenous affairs minister, Nigel Scullion, said would give them the means to advance their own economic development.
The deed is yet to be handed over but on Wednesday this week Scullion joined traditional owners, the Northern Land Council (NLC) chair and its chief executive, and the Northern Territory chief minister, Adam Giles, to announce the end of the 37-year-old land claim and subsequent negotiation.
“The Kenbi land claim has gone down in our history as the most complex and hard-fought land claim in the history of the Northern Territory,” said NLC chief executive Joe Morrison.
“It is in fact a momentous day because the Kenbi land claim has hovered over this landscape like a dark cloud for far too long. Today, that cloud has begun to dissipate.”
Giles described the settlement as “historic in nature” and said it was something he sought to see resolved under his leadership.
Jason Singh, a traditional owner, said he was a child when the claim was first lodged. His parents were part of the original claim and he and his sisters, Raylene and Zoe, said they were happy to have finished the work.
Zoe said they had been waiting for a long time. “Ever since my mum and dad were fighting it, now they’ve passed it on to us to get it over the line and we did, and we’re happy about it,” she said.
“We’ve been patient for our country. It is sad because our mum and our dad have passed … but they’ll be happy with smiles on their face.”
As part of the agreement the government has granted the former site of the Retta Dixon home as crown lease in perpetuity, a $6.06-million development lot, procurement provisions and the first right of refusal on a future residential subdivision development.
The federal government has also agreed to contribute $31.5-million in funding for rehabilitation of land contaminated by government use.
The traditional owners, now known as the Tommy Lyons Group, have in return agreed to allow public access to the intertidal area and beaches on the coastline, where camping is a popular activity for visitors, commonwealth uses and interim recognition of the rights of existing private users including squatters and mining tenements.
Though much of the settlement was agreed to “some years ago”, Morrison said, the two sticking points had been the land rehabilitation and compensation for intertidal access.
Scullion said the land tenure arrangements in the agreement, including the freehold land to be administered by the Larrakia Development Corporation, were “innovative”.
“Ten years ago I’d never have thought that part of a settlement would involve a voluntary extinguishment of native title,” he said. “I wouldn’t have thought of freeholding that much of the land to enable economic development for the traditional owners would have been available.
“I think it’s an absolutely superb template for the remainder of Australia to think about tenure and the innovative way the land council has approached this.”
The land claim was first lodged in 1979 and has been a protracted battle between traditional owners, those who wish to be claimants but were not found to be, and the federal and territory governments.
Scullion acknowledged there had been “grief in the past” and that many remained unhappy but called for the conversations about “those handful of people who may seem to be disaffected” not to “shadow the moment we have here”.
In 2000 Justice Peter Gray found six people to be “traditional Aboriginal owners” in relation to much of the land under claim. He recommended the land be granted to them as Aboriginal land but noted it would also benefit all the 1 600 Larrakia people with traditional interests.
“The history since then has been as complicated as the claim process itself and, sadly, many more Aboriginal people who would have benefited from commissioner Gray’s recommendations have passed away over that time,” Morrison said.
“I know that the journey has been stressful and distressing for many,” he said. “But, given the tortuous history of the Kenbi land claim, the NLC wants it now to be finalised, lest it lapses into limbo with the real prospect that it might never be settled. I want this day to be an occasion for celebration, in spite of the reservations held by some of the Larrakia people.”
Singh said the fight between the wider Larrakia people who laid claim to the land had made him sad but the settlement would begin the healing.
He urged those who would visit the new legally determined Aboriginal land to be respectful. “On the other side of Cox Peninsula it’s very important to me because we’ve got very sacred sites on the coastline,” he said.
“Respect the land, them and the wider Larrakia land from Darwin are welcome, but don’t leave litter. Respect the country.” – © Guardian News & Media 2016