Aborigines won a 10-year fight for control of World Heritage-listed rainforests in the centre of Australia's wealthy east coast on Tuesday, sealing one of the country's biggest native land deals.
CANBERRA, Australia -- Aborigines won a 10-year fight for control of World Heritage-listed rainforests in the centre of Australia's wealthy east coast on Tuesday, sealing one of the country's biggest native land deals.
The Githabul people will help manage 19 national parks and state forests covering 6,000 square km (3,700 square miles) in New South Wales (NSW) state, including rugged mountain peaks said to be home to powerful ancestral spirits.
The area lies beside some of Australia's most pristine coastal scenery, including the hip Byron Bay resort and the touristy beaches and cities of southern Queensland. Most of the country's economic wealth is concentrated along the eastern seaboard.
"They are no longer 'poor-bugger-me' blacks, but they will be standing on their country. The pride of that community is going to change," Warren Mundine, the chief executive of NSW Native Title Services which funded the claim, told Reuters.
Many of Australia's 460,000 Aborigines live in remote communities with poor access to jobs, good housing, health services and education. They account for around 2.3 percent of the 20 million population.
But Australia's High Court ruled in 1992 that Aborigines had a right to ancestral lands used prior to white settlement.
A lower court awarded a native land claim over metropolitan Perth in Western Australia state last September, a decision that is being appealed by both the state and national governments.
Prime Minister John Howard's conservative government has often clashed with Aboriginal leaders, favouring practical measures such as better access to health and education to symbolic land rights or an apology for past racial injustices.
The Githabul deal follows a decade of talks and legal argument with the NSW government, and will allow around 250 tribal members to hunt and fish for protected native animals, including turtles and echidnas, or native ant-eaters.
The claim covers the world heritage Border Ranges and Toonumbar national parks. Tribal elders hope it will also lead to jobs and less welfare dependency among local Aboriginals.
"Everyone usually thinks of native title and Aboriginal culture being in the north, but now here you've got it right in the heartland of the some of the wealthiest land in the country," Mundine said.
He said talks were still under way over a second claim taking in parts of southern Queensland.
Githabul claimant Trevor Close said the agreement would allow his "people of the rainforest" to hunt, fish and run businesses near the parks without fear of punishment. "The claim was lodged because our boys were sick of being pulled up (by police and park authorities) for doing what they had always done," Close told local newspapers.
Source: Reuters
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