Massive native title claim over coalfields
From Daily Mail and Cairns News
The applications for Indigenous ownership were first filed in July 2013.
They are the first to affect the Isaac region, west of Mackay, in a number of years, home to vast reserves of coal.
According to the Australian National University ‘native title claims are typically made by those who are described in the application as being the descendants of one or more of those listed as ancestors’.
‘These forebears are known commonly as ‘apical ancestors’, which simply means they are at the apex of the genealogical account.’
The people cited in this case were Barada Woman (spouse of Johnny and Charlie Budby), Lucy and/or Jimmy Barber, Kitty aka Kitty Eaglehawk, Yatton Boney, Maggie (mother of Jack Mack and Gypsy Tyson) and King Boco, the Courier Mail reports.
Documents submitted to the Federal Court stated the ancestors had ‘association within and close to the claim area(s)’ around the ‘effective date of sovereignty’ in 1865.
One document from November 1887 included writing from a person named JB Shannon who sold rations to Lucy, Sugar, Kitty and Boco for two shillings before they ‘sent the darkies off’.
Evidence presented during on-country hearings also provided insight into the Barada Kabalbara Yetimalara People’s history with the land.
That evidence included testimonies of traditional knowledges passed from generation-to-generation, like warnings to not eat emus as they were ancestors.
The Federal Court ruling will allow the Barada Kabalbara Yetimarala People ‘the right to possess, occupy, use and enjoy the lands and waters of the application area(s) as against the whole world, pursuant to the traditional laws and customs of the claim group’.
The National Native Title Tribunal states the native titles allow the Barada Kabalbara People to travel through the areas, camp and erect temporary shelters, hunt, fish, gather and take natural resources for personal, domestic and non-commercial communal purposes.
The Barada Kabalabara Yetimarala People will also be able to hold meetings, conduct ceremonies, maintain places of importance, teach, live, and be buried on or bury native title holders on the land.
Stunning map shows the extent of Native Title control in Australia – there are many more Aboriginal claims to come: Here’s what it means for you
They can also ‘speak authoritatively about the areas among other Aboriginal People in accordance with traditional laws and customs’, ‘make decisions about the use and enjoyment of the area(s) by Aboriginal people who recognise themselves to be governed by the traditional laws and customs acknowledged and observed by the native title holders’, as well as ‘transmit the cultural heritage of the native title claim group including knowledge of particular sites’.
However, the traditional laws and customs practised under the native titles remain ‘subject to and exercisable in accordance with’ state and federal government laws
Sam Dallachy and Ors on behalf of the Barada Kabalbara Yetimara People filed proceedings for the native titles with the Federal Court in January, 2019.
The case was heard at least 50 times and reviewed more than 120 documents, with Justice Sarah Derrington, Justice Darryl Rangiah and Justice John Reeves all being involved, before a verdict was delivered in May.
Applicants throughout the case included Lalu Asela, Elizabeth Doyle, Juanita Mason, Skye Muller, Norman Ross, Deborah Santo, Vanessa Saunders, Michael Smith, Davina Tilberoo Snr, Claudine Walsh, Anthony Henry and Margaret Hornagold.
More than 30 respondents were named during matters including the Central Highlands, Isaac Regional, Livingstone Shire, Rockhampton Regional, and Woorabinda Aboriginal Shire councils.
Several local resource and mining companies were also involved, including Anglo Coal, Caml Resources, Foxleigh Coal, Nippon Steel Australia, Sumitomo Metal Australia, Orion Gold, Pan Investments, and Peabody, with Telstra, Amplitel, Ergon and the Queensland Government.
Queensland has received at least 400 applications for native titles since 1994 with the latest was filed in January by the Djabugay Nation People
Some 180 were granted with the first covering land in the Hope Vale Aboriginal Shire, north of Cooktown.
There are currently 39 active claims for native title across Queensland. The latest was filed in January by the Djabugay Nation People for land south of Port Douglas to Cairns and west to Mareeba.
Cairnsnews can report there is growing dissent within Queensland’s numerous native title groups especially in the north. Three claimant groups have told CN they believe native title in its present form be it exclusive or non-exclusive gives no economic benefit at all to Aboriginal or Islander clans.
Meetings among groups have been held and we believe there will soon be a call by Aborigines and Islanders to halt all future claims until such time the vast areas awarded by the Federal Court create economic benefits.
The Native Title Act prevents successful claimants from selling, subdividing, mining, running livestock in most cases and bequeathing titles on vast swathes of Australia.
Years of investigation by Cairns News have revealed this vast estate is being set aside for the benefit of the world’s financial oligarchy. Much of North Queensland has been converted to native title to prevent mining of vast mineral, oil and gas reserves which has been guaranteed as collateral for the World Bank and the State’s major mortgagee, Rothschild Bank.
As we write this report Queensland Labor is offering as fast as it can, a large part of Cape York Peninsula mineral field to be listed for a World Heritage nomination. This move comes from the socialists who are concerned about moves against native title by indigenous people.
Under World Heritage title the United Nations UNESCO in Paris will control large areas of Queensland where there will be no entry and no economic security for any citizen.
