Aborigines move to get

Pacific

Aborigines move to get slice of economic pie

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SINCE the historic “Mabo Judgement” of the High Court in June 1992 invalidated the concept terra nellius (un occupied land), a public debate has raged in Australia about Aboriginal land rights, bringing many racists out of the woodwork who claim that it will hold back the economic development of the nation. But in Northern Australia many Aboriginal groups have been signing up joint-venture agreements with mining companies, cattle station operators and the tourist industry, promoting economic development on their reclaimed land.

One such community is the Jawoyn people, who have got large areas of land around Katherine about 350 kilo metres south of Darwin. On January 28 last year, with much fanfare in Darwin, they signed an agreement with the Zapopan mining company paving the way for the Mt Todd gold mine to go ahead. This is the same community which fought a successful battle two years ago to stop mining on Coronation Hill in Kakadu national park about 100 kilometres from here because of its association with Aboriginal spiritual beliefs.

John Ah Kit, the executive officer of the Jawoyn Association said that the Coronation Hill battle created the mis conception that Jawoyn people were opposed to mining and this deal showed it was not the case, but they would not allow spiritual areas to be mined.

“We used Mabo as a big stick to get the mining companies and the Northern Territory (NT) government to the nego tiating table by threatening to go to courts over native title claims,” Ah Kit said. “The mining company was quickly brought to the table along with both the NT and federal governments because they realised that if we went to court we’d still be there for the next 10 to 15 years.”

In 1980, a land claim by the Jawoyns for the land around Mt Todd, where gold deposits estimated to be worth over Asl billion exist, was rejected by the courts under the 1976 NT Land Rights Act. But since the Mabo judgement, Jawoyn Association has asked the Northern (Aboriginal) Land Council in Darwin to relodge the claim for the area known as Werenbun-Bamjam, Under the deal signed in January, the Jawoyn Association agreed to lift the 1368 square kilometer repeat claim on Werenbun-Bamjam in favour of a NT freehold title offered by the NT government. This will allow mining to go ahead on the land, but in return the NT government agreed to support a claim by the Jawoyns to 2900 square kilometers of land near Eva Valley for a Commonwealth freehold title which gives stronger protection than a NT title, NT government also agreed to increase the rent for the Jawoyn-owned Nitmduk Park from A 525,000 to AH 140,000 per year.

One of the sticky points of the deal is that the Zapopan mining company will not be paying any royalties to the

Jawoyn Association for the gold that they mine from Mt Todd, This part of the agreement has been criticised by other Aboriginal groups for setting a danger ous precedence. It has also come under fire from some of Mr Ah Kit’s own people from the Werenbun-Barnjarn area for agreeing to extinguish their title, Ah Kit es that th have been able to obtain the best agreement under the circumstances, “We didn’t talk about royalties or compensation because the NT government has given an undertak ing to Zapopan, prior to us bringing them to the table, that they will not be posed with the question of royalties or compensation from the Aboriginal people,” said Ah Kit. “So we didn’t push that, but we have managed to obtain other things under the agreement that would have taken us years to obtain.”

Under the deal Zapopan has agreed to ivi . guarantees onthe employment and traini c f Aborigines on fhe mine pro ject. Thly will also offer scholarships for Aboriginal students to do higher studies and give preference to the Jawoyn interests on subcontracts for landscaping and rehabilitation of the mine area.

Katherine Gorge tourist park: an art and craft business centre will be set up here