Central Land Council

CLC members travel in a convoy with Aboriginal people from the Top End and the Kimberley to march in Sydney on Australia Day where an estimated 20,000 Aboriginal people join their supporters from the trade unions, the churches, ethnic groups and the wider community, in a demonstration of survival. A joint statement signed by the heads of fourteen church's calls for Aboriginal rights, including a secure land base.

More than twenty excision's applications are submitted to the Northern Territory Lands Department. For most of the year the Department fails to take the steps outlined in its own administrative guidelines, often taking ten months or more merely to inform the lessee an application has been lodged. CLC complains to Aboriginal Affairs Minister Gerry Hand about the lack of progress.

A report released by the Anti-Slavery Society established in the late 18th century in London concludes that the plight of Australian Aborigines has not improved much in 150 years.

The CLC and Warlpiri traditional landowners sign an agreement with North Flinders Mines to allow exploration on over 5,000 square kilometer's of the Tanami Desert around the Granites. It is the first agreement negotiated from scratch under the Land Rights Act.

Matters come to a head on excisions. Admitting 'disappointing' progress, Northern Territory Lands Department representatives agree to an 'action list' drawn up with CLC and DAA. Only one excision has been negotiated under the guidelines in Central Australia in three years of operation. It becomes clear to CLC that the Federal Government's Working Party is unlikely to achieve a just settlement for Aboriginal people awaiting living areas on pastoral properties.

Major flooding resurrects the Northern Territory Government campaign for a lake north of the Alice Springs Telegraph Station, but this time the project is presented as a flood mitigation rather than a recreation lake. Chief Minister Steve Hatton blames the custodians who stopped the lake project for the deaths of three people during the floods. Werlatye Atherre is now on the National Estate Register, but custodians are horrified to find new bulldozer trenches in the area. The CLC responds to requests from traditional custodians to organise meetings to discuss how to protect the site.

We are talking for the Aboriginal people and families of Alice Springs. We demand an apology from the Chief Minister Mr Steve Hatton for his statements since last week's flood. He said the flood should be blamed on Aboriginal people because we have not given permission for the dam because of our sacred sites. This is not true and he knows it. The 1984 Board of Inquiry said that the Telegraph Station was not the right place for the dam and it wouldn't help stop a flood. What the government has done since then on flood mitigation has been four small things. We agreed with all of these, even though two of them went on our sacred sites. The Northern Territory Government has not been serious about flood mitigation. They keep talking about a recreation dam, but that won't stop the floods. The real problem. is the new developments in town, such as the Ford Resort, which causes flooding by blocking the overflow area from the Todd River into the boxwood swamp, and the Larapinta Valley and Mt John developments which cause big flows of water into the Todd River. Why has the Government allowed these new developments when we have warned them they make more trouble? Statement by custodian meeting

The Prime Minister's wife Hazel Hawke opens the new museum of art and culture at Yuelamu (Mt Allan). The land claim over the area, which is an Aboriginal-owned cattle station, remains blocked because of Northern Territory Government litigation.

The Chairman of Telecom hands over a letter of 'permissive occupancy' for parts of the Barrow Creek Telegraph Station to the Kaytetye traditional landowners. Telecom's attempts to simply transfer title to the traditional landowners have been frustrated by the Northern Territory Government for the last two years. The CLC will assist the traditional owners to establish the Thangkenharenge Resource Centre and other facilities on the 4.5-hectare site.

CLC Chairman Wenten Rubuntja and NLC Chairman Galarrwuy Yunupingu present Prime Minister Bob Hawke with the Barunga Statement - a petition seeking government recognition of Aboriginal prior ownership of Australia and calling for a treaty. The Prime Minister agrees it is up to Aboriginal people to determine what should be in such a document.

Today there are lots of people living in this country. People who have come from all over the world. But we don't call them foreigners. We don't ask 'Where's your country? Where's your father from?' They have been born here. Their mother's blood is in this country. It doesn't matter if their father's father came from Indonesia or Japan or some other place. This is their country too now. So all of us have to live together. We have to look after each other. We have to share this country. And this means respecting each other's laws and culture. That's how it should be. We've all got to live like that. Teach each other and look after each other. We have to work out a way of sharing this country, but there has to be an understanding of and respect of our culture, our law. Hopefully that's what this Treaty will mean. CLC Chairman Wenten Rubuntja

In the Lake Amadeus land claim, Justice Michael Maurice finds against the majority of claimants represented by the CLC because the traditional land tenure principle relied upon by some claimants doesn't fit the model required by the Land Rights Act. Justice Maurice recommends that two small areas of land be granted. The recommended areas lie within Kings Creek Station, which was leased to Ian Conway and Tim Lander after the land claim was lodged.

Over the last twelve months, the Northern Territory Government gave consent to negotiate to applicants holding fifty-nine Exploration Lease Applications (ELAs) - double the number of the previous year - but the Government's assessment of the financial and technical capabilities of the 'miners' is inadequate and half the companies don't pursue their applications. On instruction from traditional owners, CLC engages in negotiations with six companies over thirteen ELAs.

Angkerle Aboriginal Corporation purchases the Standley Chasm Kiosk, a successful tourist business operating on Aboriginal land near the chasm. The CLC assists Angkerle with legal advice and funding applications. The kiosk sells locally produced arts and crafts and employs several traditional owners, including a trainee manager and Angkerle plans to open a restaurant and an art gallery.

Almost a decade after the Warumungu land claim was lodged, Land Commissioner Maurice recommends the grant of 6,400 square kilometer's, but excludes a large area on the eastern side and two smaller areas because he isn't satisfied that traditional land ownership has been proved. Repeat claims are lodged and additional research begun.

In his report, Maurice notes: The country as a whole has profited, and continues to profit, from the dispossession of these people, and the use to which we put their lands. It is not simply a question of rectifying the wrongs of the past, as if the consequences of those wrongs had long ago been worked through: the simple truth is that they have not, yet as a nation we continue to enjoy the benefits from them.

The first resolution passed in the Commonwealth's new Parliament House is a recognition of Aboriginal people's prior ownership of Australia and their entitlement to self-management and self-determination. The resolution was drawn up by fourteen major churches.

The Queen, and the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Australia acknowledge that: Australia was occupied by Aborigine's and Torres Strait Islanders who had settled for thousands of years before British settlement at Sydney Cove on January 26, 1788;

Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders suffered dispossession and dispersal upon acquisition of their traditional lands by the British Crown; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders were denied full citizenship rights of the Commonwealth of Australia prior to May 27, 1967;

And affirm: The importance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and heritage; The entitlement of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders to self-management and self-determination subject to the Constitution and the laws of the Commonwealth of Australia; And consider it desirable that the Commonwealth further promote reconciliation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander citizens providing recognition of their special place in the Commonwealth of Australia.

The United Nations' Working Group on Indigenous Populations says that Australian governments are in violation of international human rights obligations in their discriminatory treatment of Aboriginal and Islander people.

In an attempt to resolve some of the detriment issues in the Warumungu land claim, CLC proposes a broad lease-back arrangement involving land adjoining the town boundaries to the Tennant Creek Town Council and the Northern Territory Government. The Government doesn't respond.

The McLaren Creek land claim hearing starts at the station homestead.

Traditional owners receive title to the Yuelamu (Mt Allan) pastoral lease, nine years after the claim was lodged. It is the first land handed back in the CLC region for two years. Title was delayed three years by Northern Territory Government legal actions, and even after the handover the Northern Territory Government goes to the Federal Court to try and prevent the title being registered.

The CLC and NLC's joint Land Rights News receives a special citation in the 1988 United Nations Media Peace Awards and the 1988 Print Newspaper Award of the Australian Human Rights Commission. The Northern Territory budget for drilling and equipping water supplies on excisions is slashed by more than half. It is only enough to provide water to three or four sites Territory-wide.

CLC institutes a computer database of water resources and needs and plans to establish independent Central Australian Aboriginal Water Supply Units to give Aboriginal people skills and equipment to find and maintain their own supplies.

The Northern Territory Government introduces a Bill to replace the Aboriginal Sacred Sites Act with new legislation which would weaken Aboriginal control over the protection of sacred sites.

Mr Long Pwerle is elected as the new Chairman when the CLC meets at Harts Range. Mr Long is a Kaytetye man. His grandmother's country is Barrow Creek and his grandfather's country is Willowra. Mr Long lives at Alekarenge and already has a long history of involvement in Aboriginal organisations including the Central Land Council and the National Aboriginal Consultative Committee.Geoff Shaw is re-elected Deputy Chairman.

A Perth-based mining company, Frankenfeld Quarries applies to the Aboriginal Sacred Sites Protection Authority for clearance to mine the Devils Pebbles - an outcrop of granite boulders twelve kilometres north of Tennant Creek. The company wants to quarry granite for decorative tiles. When the authority consults the traditional landowners they refuse permission and apply for the sacred site to be registered.

The Northern Territory Government's Strehlow Research Centre Act goes into effect. The Act, which was introduced without consulting Aboriginal people, controls the future of Aboriginal artifacts, sacred objects and other culturally important material collected by T.G.H. Strehlow, a renowned anthropologist who was born at Hermannsburg Mission and later worked as a patrol officer in Central Australia.

There is no requirement for Aboriginal representation on the Board of Management or provision for the involvement of appropriate Aboriginal people in decisions about the collection. CLC asks the Commonwealth Government to withhold any financial assistance. Atula Pastoral Lease is purchased by the Aboriginal Development Commission with CLC's assistance. A land claim is lodged over the property.