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The Kimberley Land Council in Western Australia’s north has called for a complete overhaul of the state’s Aboriginal Heritage Act as a government review of the legislation begins in the region.
KLC acting chief executive officer Tyronne Garstone said the Act was in dire need of a rewrite.
He urged the state’s Labor Government to start afresh rather than amending the current Act piecemeal.
“For many years the Kimberley Land Council has been calling on the WA State Government to make real and positive changes to the Aboriginal Heritage Act,” Mr Garstone said.
“The current Act, being from a pre-Native Title and pre-racial discrimination legislation era, is fundamentally flawed and should be repealed and replaced, rather than amended piecemeal.
“The overriding purpose of the legislation should be the protection of Aboriginal sites for the benefit of Aboriginal people.
“Currently, the Act is primarily directed at processes that provide for damage to and destruction of Aboriginal sites.
“Applications to damage or destroy Aboriginal sites are almost never rejected.”
Mr Garstone says the current Act and the way it was administered was unfairly weighted towards proponents, developers and the community at large, rather than Aboriginal people.
Key changes sought by the KLC include rigorous consultation and consent requirements from Native Title holders consistent with the Native Title Act.
Permit holders of mining tenements should also not be allowed to make applications to alter Aboriginal sites.
“This should be a matter for resolution between the relevant miner and Native Title holding group,” the KLC said.
Wendy Caccetta

An Aboriginal corporation is establishing its own beef brand and supply chain to directly benefit indigenous communities in WA.
The Buurabalayji Thalanyji Aboriginal Corporation is the governing body for Native Title on the land around the coastal town of Onslow, about 500 kilometres south-east of Port Hedland.
But the group did not stop at mining royalties.
Its subsidiary, Thalanyji Pastoral Company, owns Maroonah Station and Mangaroon Station along with more than 7,000 head of cattle in the North West.
Thalanyji's connections to pastoral businesses date back to the 19th century when the Ashburton region was settled by Europeans.
The corporation prides itself on its commitment to Aboriginal employment, whether it be contractors or trainees, and funding initiatives to benefit communities.
Moving off country
The pastoral business is now expanding outside the North West.
It recently purchased Diamond Downs farm in Dandaragan, about 200 kilometres north of Perth.
Thalanyji Corporation CEO Matthew Slack, who is of Noongah heritage, said they would apply for a 3,000–5,000-head feedlot to be built on the property.

"Generally speaking, if we can get the Environmental Protection Authority approvals within 12–18 weeks, we should be able to have the feedlot operational by year's end," Mr Slack said.

The feedlot will be the last link in a supply chain beginning with Aboriginal-run stations and finishing with a feedlot on Yued Noongar country in Dandaragan.
The company's unique beef brand will be processed through the Borrello Beef abattoir, which is about a 30-minute drive south from the proposed feedlot.
Mr Slack said the initial construction would cost about $350,000 and would deliver 2,000–2,500 head of cattle to the domestic market each year.
"If we have a genuine paddock to plate program, which is our strategy here, and we look to peel off somewhere between 3,000–5,000 animals a year through the Droughtmaster line, and we introduce our Angus line as well, the sky is the limit," Mr Slack said.
Mr Slack said he would look to install two centre pivot irrigation areas on the property to supply in Thalanyji's grass-fed beef product line.
"We'll feed our Angus off that pivot produce and house them here for 90–100 days," he said.
Queensland project underway
While it is still in its infancy, a similar project producing the Blackfella Beef brand in Queensland is looking at the viability of an Indigenous branded product.
It is a collaboration between the Western Kangoulu Indigenous Group, University of Southern Queensland and Meat & Livestock Australia.
It will examine the desirability, feasibility and commercial viability of Indigenous branded beef products and services.
Under the concept, Indigenous groups will seek to leverage agricultural opportunities attached to native title negotiations to build a businesses that support the local community.
MLA chief marketing officer Lisa Sharp said the project was about identifying and working with innovative producers to increase the value of the red meat industry.
“The focus on beef production systems, specifically with a branded product, clearly identifies the desire to reinvest in community development and provide capability building for the wider red meat industry in regional areas," she said. 
Bridging the gap with business
The Thalanyji Corporation is already using their business to positively influence community development.
Mr Slack said one of his biggest motivations was improving health outcomes for Aboriginal children.

"It's a tragic figure that you're eight times more likely, if you are an Indigenous child living in Onslow, to have type-two diabetes than if you're a white child in Perth, and that needs to change," Mr Slack said.

The corporation has also used its business acumen to develop other enterprises, such as a fuel distribution and civil works business.
"The money our corporation has earnt from its enterprises over the last two [years] has gone to build a medical clinic in Onslow for the entire community," Mr Slack said.
"We have the commercial nous and enterprise to make money from business and channel that money into better outcomes."
The pastoral properties also provide employment and run skill development camps for at-risk youth.
Leonard Ashburton, a Thalanyji man and deputy chairperson of the Thalanyji Corporation, said he got out of bed each morning to help create a better future for his people.
"For me, it's about making sure that everybody who's Thalanyji can have a future, and can have a life that's comfortable, and a life that we all want to live," he said.

"I want to be able to give them something they can be proud of, and not just the Thalanyji people but also people across Onslow in general, and all Indigenous people."

Mr Ashburton said it was not just about the "bottom line".
"We're not going to enter into any business that's not going to bring a direct benefit back to our community," he said.
A model for others
Mr Ashburton said he hoped the corporation's model was adopted by other Indigenous groups.
"It's new and it will allow us to be a leader in this area," he said.
"It gives us some financial stability going forward, without relying on mining royalties.
"People are always going to need cattle and beef, people are always going to need food."
A role in decolonisation
Carol Dowling, a Badimia/Yamatji woman and an anthropologist at Curtin University's Centre of Aboriginal Studies, said the project could bring about widespread economic development, as well as develop social capital.
She said the project also played a role in a broader decolonisation process.
"That's what decolonisation is about; healing and empowering and moving forward," she said.
"We're talking about people that were previously employed in the pastoral industry, have an intimate relationship with that industry, and are now starting to take control of it."

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Ben Wyatt has thrown his weight behind plans for a $348 million mineral sands mine in the Kimberley despite a dispute between the proponent and traditional owners.

Sheffield Resources’ Thunderbird project between Broome and Derby is expected to generate 220 jobs in construction and as many as 280 local jobs in production over a 42-year minelife.

The company has also committed to an Aboriginal employment rate of 40 per cent by year eight of the mine’s operation.

Thunderbird is expected to deliver $700 million in State royalties and payroll tax over its life.

But plans for the mine have been hampered by a dispute over whether Sheffield had negotiated in good faith to strike a native title agreement with the local Mt Jowlaenga group.

The National Native Title Tribunal reserved its decision after a hearing on Friday, after the dispute was referred back to it following two Federal Court appeals.

Mr Wyatt said he had tried to broker a deal between the groups but noted that Sheffield had “gone to great lengths” to engage with traditional owners and he believed the project had enormous community support.

“In light of the direct and indirect benefits this project will bring to traditional owners and the Kimberley region, nobody will benefit from negotiations failing and this important project not proceeding,” he said.

Mr Wyatt said while traditional owners were entitled to exercise their legal rights, he was hopeful of a successful outcome for both parties.

Sheffield could be forced back to the negotiating table with the Mt Jowlaenga group before it can apply for a mining licence if it is found not to have acted in good faith to secure an agreement.

When native title holders celebrate the native title determination over the Maryvale cattle station south of Alice Springs tomorrow, they will remember their families who lived and worked there for 80 years.

At a special sitting of the Federal Court on Maryvale, Justice Charlesworth will hand down a consent determination over an area of 3244 square kilometres.
The ceremony will take place on the banks of the Hugh River, 3.6km from the community of Titjikala, south of Alice Springs tomorrow.
The native title holders’ from the Imarnte, Titjikala and Idracowra land holding groups speak Southern Arrernte, also known as Pertame [PUR-dum], and many of them live in Titjikala, an community living area excised from the pastoral lease and not included in the claim.
The native title holders will be celebrating the recognition of their right to hunt and gather on the station, to protect their sacred sites and conduct cultural activities and ceremonies.
“This determination will also give them the right to negotiate about exploration and mining activities on their land, for example the salt mine and hazardous waste storage facility in the determination area,” said Francine McCarthy, the Central Land Council’s manager of native title.
The native title holders are currently negotiating an agreement with the operator, Tellus.

The European history of the determination area dates back to the 1890s, when pastoralists established what was then called Mount Burrell station.
“The area includes a site where, in the 1860s, the party of explorer John McDouall Stuart shot at three armed Aboriginal men who allegedly threatened the expedition,” Ms McCarthy said.
“TGH Strehlow and other anthropologists recorded frequent violence between the Mount Burrell pastoralists and the Aboriginal land owners who resented their intrusion and kidnapping of local women.”
The Rodinga Aboriginal Corporation will hold the native title rights and interests for the determination area while Maryvale Station will continue to operate as a cattle station.

Native title will be awarded to Aboriginals from several Central Australian communities around Maryvale cattle station where a salt mine is planned.

Native title will be granted to several Central Australian Aboriginal groups in an area where there are plans to build a massive salt mine and waste storage site.

Members of the Imarnte, Titjikala and Idracowra groups will be awarded native title over a 3,244 sq km area by Federal Court Justice Natalie Charlesworth at a special sitting of the Federal Court at the Maryvale cattle station on Wednesday.

The native title holders will have recognition of their right to hunt and gather on the station, protection of sacred sites and cultural activities and ceremonies but they cannot veto private company Tellus' mine plans.

"This determination will also give them the right to negotiate about exploration and mining activities on their land, for example the salt mine and hazardous waste storage facility in the determination area," the Central Land Council's manager of native title Francine McCarthy said.

A West Australian bureaucrat has deemed the use of the term "Aboriginal" may be regarded as offensive and exercised a little-known power to redact it from birth, death and marriage certificates.
This means historians, native title claim groups and members of the public may be spending up to $49 to buy a document which may have historical detail like Aboriginality removed without their knowledge.
It has shocked historians, who were unaware of the practice and say Aboriginal is considered by most to be an inclusive term.
Aboriginal is a commonly-used term by governments around Australia, with several states — including WA — boasting ministers for Aboriginal affairs.
Emeritus professor of history at the University of Western Australia Jenny Gregory said she would write to the WA Attorney-General to request the practice be stopped.
Dr Gregory, who is also the president of the History Council of WA, said it was bizarre that the registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages was determining what people could know about their ancestors.

"Way back in the past people might have hidden their Aboriginality … it's now a source of pride for many people of Aboriginal descent today," she said.

"In my view, and I think most historians would agree with this, the registrar is tampering with history.
"He's making, if you like, fake histories."
Practice stirs up painful memories
Like many other local historians contacted by the ABC, Dr Gregory was unaware that the registrar has the legislative authority to issue a certificate without a term they regard could be offensive.
It was brought to the ABC's attention by two keen family historians, Perth man Garry Smith and his Queensland-based cousin, John Chandler.
About five years ago, Mr Smith were researching his history online and discovered documents about to his father's aunt and grandmother, which referred to them as "Aboriginal Jane" and "Kitty Aboriginal".
He visited the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages in Perth to buy copies of the certificates and was horrified to discover the word Aboriginal had been whited out.
He claims a staff member told him the term was offensive and had been removed.
Mr Smith, who does not consider the term Aboriginal offensive, was told he would have to fill out a statutory declaration to get a copy of the original document with the correct wording.
He said the experience made him feel sick, as if he should feel ashamed for being Aboriginal.

"If you're Aboriginal, it's offensive and deemed offensive — but the government calls us Aboriginals," he said.

For Mr Chandler, it was particularly painful to discover his identity in his middle-age and then have it removed by a bureaucrat.
He was brought up as "Spanish-Irish" because his grandmother refused to acknowledge her Aboriginal background after a painful childhood.
"We feel like we have people making decisions on behalf of us, just like in the past," he said.
The men want an apology from the registrar and for the practice to stop.
Root of decision unclear
Dr Cindy Solonec, an Indigenous colleague of Dr Gregory's on the History Council of WA, said she believed most Aboriginal people would be offended to know the term could be considered offensive and redacted.
"What a load of hogwash. We are Aboriginal people," she said.
Documents seen by the ABC suggest that the practice of removing terms deemed offensive began as part of the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages' digitisation of its records between 2007 and 2015.
It does not appear illegal under the legislation, which states:

"If, in the Registrar's opinion, a word or expression appearing on an entry in the Register is, or may be regarded as, offensive, the Registrar may issue a certificate under subsection (1)(a) without including the word or expression."

But it does raise questions about why the term Aboriginal was deemed offensive.
It is also unclear whether the current registrar, Brett Burns, or a predecessor made the decision. Mr Burns declined to be interviewed by the ABC.
He issued a statement which said that many details on certificates from the 19th and 20th centuries contained observations, which may have had no basis in fact and would be considered offensive, inappropriate and hurtful.
"Up until approximately the mid-1980s, when the registry began collecting reference to a person's Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin at the request of the Australian Bureau of Statistics for statistical, medical and planning purposes (and not to be printed on a birth certificate), there has never been a legal requirement for registrars to note the race or ethnic background of a person on the 'Register' or such documents as birth certificates," the statement said.
"Some district registrars in the 1800s and 1900s entered such details on historical registers from personal observations which may have had no basis in fact.
"Many of these entries, though not all, would be considered exceedingly offensive, inappropriate and hurtful.

"Current legislation allows the registrar to remove reference to terms that may be offensive (or hurtful). That is why, and for no other reason, that birth certificates that reference Aboriginality is removed."

"This approach is consistent with practice across state and territory registries."
Aboriginal not the only 'offensive' term
Mr Chandler and Mr Smith also plan to lodge a racial discrimination claim against the registrar in the Federal Court, after an attempt at mediation by the Australian Human Rights Commission failed.
In correspondence to the AHRC in November last year, the WA State Solicitor's Office said other non-standard terms had been also removed from certificates because they were considered offensive.

"Other known words or expressions which may be regarded as offensive, disrespectful or hurtful include 'bastard', 'illegitimate' and 'incinerated' for cremated still-born babies," the office wrote.

"References to a person's race, such as 'Aboriginal' or 'Japanese' (particularly in pearling towns) were sometimes also recorded in birth registrations.
"Additionally, all these observations, words or expressions are redacted as they were not prescribed by regulation existing at the time and do not form part of the 'official' Register."
Both Dr Solonec and Dr Gregory said anyone who was researching their family tree, the most popular form of history in Australia, should be concerned about the amendment of certificates issued by the registrar.
"Loads of people are doing their family history and sometimes they find out some things that are shocking to them, other times they're delighted to find out information," Dr Gregory said.

"But the point is no one should change the past.

"This can't be changed and for the registrar to be able to prevent people from knowing who their ancestors are, seems to me an appalling state of affairs."

BANGKOK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Recognition of land rights for an Aboriginal group in Adelaide after an 18-year legal battle could spur more Australian cities to acknowledge such claims and make urban spaces more inclusive of indigenous communities, an analyst said.
A land use deal is due soon, following a federal court ruling in March that approved an agreement recognizing the Kaurna people’s claim over large parts of Adelaide.
The native title agreement with the South Australia state government is the first of its kind to apply to land in an Australian capital.
The agreement does not give the Kaurna ownership of the 4,000 sq km (1,544 sq miles) of land in Adelaide, but it recognizes them as the original owners when the city was settled nearly 200 years ago.
Under the agreement, the Kaurna people may get the right to make decisions about the use of the land, to use its resources, and to carry out activities including hunting, fishing and harvesting of resources.
Recognition of native rights in cities is significant, as nearly 80 percent of Aboriginal people live in urban areas where they are often marginalized, said Libby Porter, an associate professor at RMIT University in Melbourne.
“Cities play a particular role in dispossession, because they are so densely settled by non-indigenous people, and it is very hard for indigenous people to achieve land justice,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“A native title allows indigenous people to be seen as stakeholders in the urban planning system, which has perpetuated a perception that they do not belong in urban areas,” she said.
Australia’s aboriginal people were dispossessed when the continent was colonized by Britain in the 18th century, but native title laws allow land claims if Aborigines can prove an unbroken association with the land.
Australia’s roughly 700,000 indigenous citizens - who track near the bottom of the country’s 23 million people in almost every economic and social indicator - see native title as recognition of their place as Australia’s first people.
Aboriginal native title covers more than 2.4 million sq km of Australia, or nearly a third of the national landmass.
But tensions between the competing interests of pastoral leaseholders and businesses, particularly miners, are common.
The Kaurna applied for recognition of land in Adelaide in 2000. Under the agreement, the state will provide a sum of money to them, and funds for the repatriation of ancestral bones.
“It’s significant, as it is an acknowledgement that we are the original custodians of the land,” said Lewis O’ Brien, a Kaurna elder and one of the applicants on the claim.
“Otherwise, it was as though we did not exist.”

Mike Ross says it is a fight he is willing to take down to the wire. As chairman of the Olkola Aboriginal Corporation in Cape York and the biggest non-government landholder in the region, he holds a vision for his people’s land that doesn’t involve mining.

But under Australia’s current Aboriginal land acts, Indigenous people have no legal right to say no to mining exploration on freehold land, meaning the only course open to them is to challenge each mining exploration licence through arduous court battles.

In a landmark case in the National Native Title Tribunal in March, the Olkola Aboriginal Corporation successfully objected to mining exploration permits being issued under “expedited procedure” in Queensland.

NORTH Queensland’s Nywaigi people say a federal-court decision to grant them Native Title rights is recognition of their “intimate connection” with the land.

The Federal Court is expected to formally recognise the Nywaigi people’s Native Title rights and interests over almost 40,000ha of land and waters between Rollingstone and Ingham at a hearing on Mungalla Station today.

Senior Nywaigi man and traditional owner Phil Rist said the land and waters had cultural and spiritual significance.

Western Australia’s 45-year-old Aboriginal Heritage Act — the legislation underpinning the preservation and protection of Aboriginal heritage in the state is set to be reviewed.

WA Aboriginal Affairs Minister Ben Wyatt said the review would involve a three-stage public consultation process that would lead to new legislation being introduced into the WA Parliament.