Native title conference tells it how it is

Native title conference tells it how it is

By Martin Iltis

CANBERRA — More than 150 people attended a conference here on September 13 titled "Native Title: Whose Title?" organised by Reconciliation in the ACT.

Mary Lou Buck, a participant in the Aboriginal Tent Embassy and Freedom Train in the 1960s, gave a moving account of the anguish and feelings of dispossession and loss of identity caused by governments' child separation policies. She pointed out that racism still exists in government.

Parry Agius, a representative on the National Indigenous Working Group on Native Title (NIWG), spoke "not about politics but about education". He explained that under Howard's 10-point plan, rights to negotiate with mining companies and pastoralists would be significantly eroded.

He told the audience that the government had refused even to look at the NIWG's proposals for an alternative to the 10-point plan.

Marist Brother Graeme Mundine said the negotiated agreement with the previous Labor government, in which Aborigines gave up the right to freehold and the right of veto on their land, had been a mistake.

Kaye Mundine, chairperson of the Aboriginal Justice Advisory Council of the ACT, explained that Aborigines are pressured to negotiate without having access to the same resources the government enjoys, due in part to the under-funding of Aboriginal services.

Mundine also condemned the hypocrisy of the government calling Aborigines "obstructionist" when their negotiators halt negotiations to consult their people, but remaining silent when mining and pastoralist representatives constantly halt negotiations.

From GLW issue 291