Public meeting on Wik

Public meeting on Wik

By Rob Graham

ADELAIDE — Around 300 people attended a public meeting organised by Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR) and the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) on August 11 entitled "Sharing the land — native title and coexistence".

Lester Rigney from Flinders University said that there was a need to broaden the debate on native title beyond the (justifiable) focus on land.

Rigney explained that the High Court's Mabo decision conceded that there was a land tenure system in Australia predating colonisation. This meant that there were also educational, welfare, judicial and governmental systems. Rigney said that the High Court decision did not legitimate these, but that the "price" of sharing the land should be the recognition of Aboriginal culture and social systems.

Jim Downey, executive director of the ACF, explained the potentially devastating environmental effects should Howard's 10-point plan be implemented. The upgrading of pastoral leases to freehold would mean fewer restrictions on land use. (Freehold leases have twice the rate of land clearance of pastoral leases, according to a 1995 report from the CSIRO.)

Noel Pearson, former chairperson of the Cape York Land Council, said that rulings like Mabo are the only way to peacefully resolve the land question, but condemned Howard's 10-point plan. He said that he hoped the new movement for land rights would not be a "miserable failure" like preceding ones, but put forward no strategies, beyond attempting to use the law as it stands, to achieve justice.

ANTaR is currently attempting to obtain 250,000 signatures on its "Australian Citizen's Statement on Native Title". ANTaR can be contacted on (08) 8210 8172.

From GLW issue 286