Walking with my Sisters
Produced and directed by Bronwyn Kidd
Wednesday, October 14, 8pm
SBS
Review by Margaret Allum
In April 1997, the native title deal between the NSW government and four sisters of the Arakwal people of Cape Byron was hailed as the most advanced settlement of native title issues in Australia.
The claim, over land and water in the area around popular tourist spot Byron Bay, was lodged in 1994 — around a year after the Mabo decision caused controversy.
Arakwal traditional custodians Yvonne Graham, Linda Vidler, Dulcie Nicholes and Lorna Kelly were obliged under the requirements of native title laws to prove their continuous connection to the seven square kilometres of coastal crown land, and 99 square kilometres of sea around Byron Bay.
They enlisted the assistance of an archaeologist, who is documenting their claim that they were born and raised, and still live in the area, as did their ancestors.
Kelly told the Koori Mail on April 9, 1997 that she and her sisters "remember walking these lands with our father and learning the special significance of this land from him.
"The people I represent are the direct descendants of the Arakwal people, who occupied this land at the time of European contact. We have never abandoned our country, or our duty to protect our land."
Walking With My Sisters is an informative and at times moving film that documents the three-year process from lodgement and acceptance of the claim to the legal outcome which "guaranteed" a land-use agreement.
The agreement allowed the NSW government to declare Cape Byron a state recreation area while at the same time, through the NSW Land Rights Act, recognising the interests of the native title claimants.
In return, an Arakwal Corporation representative would become a trustee on the Cape Byron Headland Reserve Trust board which oversees the care, control and management of Cape Byron, and the sisters would be granted land for homes and a cultural centre. Other land is still under negotiation.
However, 18 months later, the women are still waiting for the deal to be fully honoured.
The film features much of the land claimed, including Taylor's Lake. The sisters explain that the lake is an Aboriginal women's place, where the frequent presence of non-Aboriginal men and women bathing nude causes them distress.
It details the legal complexities of the claim process, and the complications caused by an application by non-Aboriginal locals for a nursing home to be built on the claimed land.
The sisters show the film-maker the Tallow Creek area, where they used to live (their home was mysteriously destroyed by fire one day when they were in town), and the surrounding area devastated by pollution and sand mining.
Walking With My Sisters captures the warmth and determination of the women's long fight for their heritage, capturing moments of high spirits as well as of despair.
Film-maker Bronwyn Kidd has dedicated this film to the memory of Yvonne Graham who died on August 26, still waiting for justice.