Central Land Council

The Northern Territory Government releases the Final Environmental Impact Statement on the Junction Waterhole dam. The report says that custodians have been consulted by the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority (AAPA) and given approval for sites to be destroyed. The objections of custodians, which have been made publicly and in submissions to the Government since the project was announced, are ignored. CLC seeks a declaration from the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Robert Tickner, to protect the sites under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Heritage Protection Act. Northern Territory Chief Minister Marshall Perron tells Alice Springs residents that work on the dam will commence in May.

After two years of intensive hearings and investigations the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody releases its National Report. The report contains 339 recommendations in five volumes and addresses underlying issues including the dispossession of Aboriginal land and culture, and Aboriginal exclusion from economic benefits. The Commission supports the granting of Aboriginal land rights Australia-wide and Aboriginal people's right to control access and development of their land.

The Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 is regarded by Aboriginal people as the benchmark of achievable land rights legislation. [Aboriginal people] are united in their view that land. is the key to their cultural and economic survival as a people. Royal Commission into Deaths in Custody National Report, 19.1.1, 19.2.6

The CLC meeting at Wanmara, near Kings Canyon, unanimously opposes moves by the Northern Territory Government to wrest control of the Land Rights Act from the Commonwealth Government.

When custodians are grudgingly allowed to visit the Alice Springs dam construction site, they discover earthworks under way and sacred sites already damaged or threatened. They establish a protest camp outside the gates to the construction area. Under pressure from the Commonwealth, Chief Minister Marshall Perron stops work on the dam for a few days to allow talks between the parties.

On 25 March representatives from the CLC, the AAPA, Commonwealth and Northern Territory Governments meet in Alice Springs and agree that work should not resume until there are further consultations with custodians. That night Chief Minister Marshall Perron overturns the decision of his officers and orders the bulldozers back in. At midnight Aboriginal Affairs Minister Tickner issues a declaration under s.9 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Heritage Protection Act to protect the sacred sites.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Robert Tickner, attends the CLC meeting at Intjartnama, ninety kilometres west of Alice Springs, to discuss the Commonwealth Government's proposal for a council of reconciliation. Delegates express concern about the long wait through the decade-long process but support greater recognition of Aboriginal rights and culture, and give unanimous support to the process. Tickner returns to Canberra with the CLC's support and a handful of dirt from Intjartnama. Cabinet decides to back the process of reconciliation that night.

A meeting of over one hundred custodians rejects the Junction Waterhole dam proposal and decries the damage to sites which has already occurred. The AAPA is forced to revoke the certificate but Chief Minister Marshall Perron says that the dam will be re-designed and another proposal presented.

Title to two small areas of land at Honeymoon Bore and Sandover River are handed back to Alyawarr traditional landowners, the first of twenty-six portions of stock routes and stock reserves in the CLC region to be handed back under the 1989 amendments to the Land Rights Act. Both areas were subject to long and bitter negotiations for excisions, which kept traditional owners living for many years in car bodies and makeshift shelters without even basic services.

The Yurrkuru (Brookes Soak) land claim hearing begins near the site where Brookes was killed in 1928. The small area under claim is of great historical as well as cultural importance to the traditional landowners because of its association with the Coniston Massacre.

The Northern Territory Government introduces amendments to the Crown Lands Act prohibiting excisions within two kilometres of a homestead. The Northern Territory Government backdates the law to March 1990 so that some existing applications are retrospectively outlawed. The CLC protests to the Northern Territory and the Federal Governments, but the law is passed.

Title to 2,852 square kilometres of the Warumungu land claim area is handed back to traditional owners. It is the first part of the Warumungu land to be returned but represents less than half of the area recommended for grant. The handback is made possible by the Northern Territory Government's acceptance - finally - of a compromise offer on land near the town. The traditional owners agree to give substantial areas of land around Tennant Creek to the Northern Territory Government in return for title to two areas of land outside the claim area which contain important sacred sites.

AAPA receives an application for a certificate allowing construction of a re-designed flood mitigation dam at Junction Waterhole. The new proposal will still destroy and desecrate sacred sites.

The CLC signs a new mineral exploration agreement with the Tanami Joint Venturers. The agreement covers 3,561 square kilometres of land around Mt Winnecke, between Tanami and Lajamanu.

The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation Bill is passed to establish a mechanism for discussion of the reconciliation of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. Former CLC Director Pat Dodson is appointed Council Chairman and former CLC Chairman Wenten Rubuntja becomes a member of the Reconciliation Council.

The Strehlow Research Centre is opened in Alice Springs. Despite CLC objections, the ATSIC Commissioners approve the grant of $1.5 million to the Northern Territory Government toward the cost of construction.

I don't think Strehlow would have liked this museum. My grandfather taught him all about objects and ceremonies. We need those things. We need them for ceremony and schooling our younger generation. And after, when they learn, they can school their young ones. All Aborigines need them things to be put in our sacred sites and not in a museum. To use it and put them where they used to be. When I feel lonely I just start singing my songs that my Grandpa taught me and I'm happy, but objects are always on my mind. We've got strong law. Whitefella laws are weak. They change the papers around. We don't change the paper. We've got it in our mind, in our caves - there's a whole book lying there. What are we going to do if we don't get those objects? What's going to happen?The old people and the old people after me, they'll be lost like an old mob of sheep just roaming around the country with nothing, nothing to show their kids. Max Stuart, CLC Executive Member

The remains of Cubadgee, a Warumungu man whose bones had been held in the South Australian Museum, are returned to Tennant Creek and buried by his family. It is the first such burial in Australia.

You're back home now. This is your home. You've been gone from here - now you've come back and you're resting in your own land. The whole family came up to you, so you can rest in peace in your own land. Brian Tennyson speaking at Cubadgee's graveside

The Anindilyakwa Land Council is formed to represent the traditional landowners of Groote and Bickerton islands. These islands had been part of the Northern Land Council region but Aboriginal Affairs Minister Robert Tickner decided to establish a separate land council following a plebiscite.

Mistake Creek pastoral lease in the northwest corner of the CLC region is purchased on behalf of the Tjupanyin Aboriginal Corporation. Traditional landowners lodge a claim over the property, which they continue to operate with more than 10,000 head of stock under Aboriginal management.

Custodians for the Junction Waterhole area tell the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority and Northern Territory Government representatives that they will not approve any proposal for a dam at Junction Waterhole that damages and desecrates sacred sites. They maintain their position at a series of meetings over the next two months.

Justice Peter Gray of the Federal Court in Victoria is appointed as the new Aboriginal Land Commissioner to replace Justice Olney.

Kumanjayi Nelson Napurrula, the CLC delegate for Ngappamilarnu and CLC Director Kumantjayi Ross travel to Geneva to participate in the annual meeting of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations.

The CLC meets near Daguragu and delegates join the Gurindji in a celebration to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Gurindji walk off. Five hundred people attend including writer Frank Hardy and former prime minister Gough Whitlam.

The Aboriginal Land Commissioner recommends that the vast majority of the North-West Simpson Desert land claim be returned to traditional landowners.

CLC Director Kumanjayi Ross is appointed as a part-time ATSIC Commissioner by the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs.

Mr Long Pwerle is re-elected as Chairman at the CLC meeting at Arraculara. Barry Abbott, an Arrernte man representing Wallace Rockhole, is elected as Deputy Chairman.

The AAPA informs the Power and Water Authority (PAWA) that it cannot issue an authority certificate for the construction of the re-designed dam at Junction Waterhole. PAWA applies to the Minister for Lands and Housing Mr Max Ortmann for a review of the AAPA decision.

The CLC and Warlpiri traditional landowners sign an exploration agreement with the Tanami Joint Ventures for fourteen square kilometers of land in the Tanami Desert. Titles for two areas of land totaling 3,682 square kilometers are handed back to traditional landowners at Piccaninny Bore, 600 kilometers northwest of Alice Springs. The areas are part of the land claimed by Gurindji, Nyininyi and Warlpiri traditional owners in the Western Desert land claim. The claim was lodged in May 1980.

North Flinders Mine announces the discovery of a high-grade gold deposit on Aboriginal land in the Tanami Desert. The Callie deposit is four times richer than the average grade for Australian open-cut mines and contains an estimated 710,000 ounces of gold. Exploration was conducted under an agreement reached between NFM and the CLC on 28 September 1990.

Sadly, within some sections of the mining industry, there appears to be little understanding of the interests of Aboriginal people and too few people willing to make an effort to find out what Aboriginal interests in the land really are. The problem with many mining companies is that they assume they know what Aboriginal people want, without discussing it with the people concerned. North Flinders Mines' people have done that from day one - sitting around the campfires discussing the interests of the people with the people and their representatives, the Central Land Council. Discussing their concerns about our activity, and occasionally dispelling some misconceptions which may have arisen through the ventures - or sometimes misadventures - of other mining companies. Geoff Stewart, Chief Executive North Flinders Mines.

The Kings Canyon Frontier Lodge is officially opened by senior traditional landowner Peter Bulla, Aboriginal Affairs Minister Robert Tickner and Northern Territory Minister for Industries and Development Steve Hatton. The $17-million project was jointly funded by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commercial Development Corporation, CentreCorp and Frontier Holidays.

Title to the Finke land claim (5,437 square kilometres of land in the south-western Simpson Desert near the Northern Territory-South Australian border) is handed back to the Southern Arrernte traditional landowners. It's important to get the title for that country.

That's my land and I got to go back that way. We're ready to go back and stop there.' Brownie Doolan.

The CLC meets with other Aboriginal, community, environment, industry and government representatives to discuss the future of the Aboriginal pastoral industry. The workshop focuses on developing a strategy to develop successful Aboriginal-owned cattle projects in the Northern Territory.

The Barunga Statement is hung in Parliament House, Canberra, in fulfilment of the promise made by Prime Minister Bob Hawke in 1988. The hanging is Mr Hawke's last official act as Prime Minister and is attended by the Central and Northern Land Council executives.