Territory Stories

ALC 15 year strategic plan 2012-2027

Details:

Title

ALC 15 year strategic plan 2012-2027

Creator

Anindilyakwa Land Council

Collection

Anindilyakwa Land Council annual report; Anindilyakwa Land Council strategic plan; Reports; PublicationNT

Date

2012

Notes

Made available via the Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 (NT).

Language

English

Subject

Anindilyakwa Land Council (N.T.) -- Periodicals; Aboriginal Australians -- Northern Territory -- Groote Eylandt -- Periodicals

Publisher name

Anindilyakwa Land Council

Place of publication

Alyangula

Volume

2012-2027

Copyright owner

Anindilyakwa Land Council

Parent handle

https://hdl.handle.net/10070/254602

Citation address

https://hdl.handle.net/10070/529654

Page content

ALC 15 year Strategic Plan 5. Goal A: Protect the Land and Sea 44 The Australian Government is considering including the area for its national heritage values relating to Aboriginal sea country and songlines. It would be included as an emergency listing due to the threat of seabed exploration and mining activities. The listing would affect seabed exploration and mining activities, but not general marine activities such as fishing, boating or shipping transport. There are guidelines and 10 criteria used to consider the heritage value of the place. The Department of Environment produces a report, which then goes before the Australian Heritage Council to consider. The Councils decision then goes to the minister, who has the final say. If approved, it is the responsibility of the Department to uphold this heritage value. However, if the seas around Groote Eylandt were listed for their exemplary heritage value as a unique form of Aboriginal sea country, especially the spiritual system which is manifest within these waters, then that would mean other Aboriginal societies with sea country would probably not get their seas on the register. The ALC can therefore either apply for Heritage Listing for the sea country around Groote Eylandt or get the societies of northern Australia together and apply to have them all listed as one exemplary system of Aboriginal sea country. For an application to be successful, the researchers and authors of the application must have a strong knowledge of the places their application will be compared. For Groote Eylandt this would be comparing Groote sea country to other aboriginal sea country areas. The ALC therefore needs to build its knowledge of other saltwater people across the north in order to pre-empt the criticisms of the assessors. ACTIONS: 19. Apply for National Heritage Listing for sea-country of the Groote archipelago. MAKE A NATIVE TITLE CLAIM Native title is the recognition by Australian law that some Indigenous people have rights and interests to their land that come from their traditional laws and customs. The concept recognises in certain cases there was and is a continued beneficial legal interest in land held by local Indigenous Australians which survived the acquisition of radical title to the land by The Crown at the time of sovereignty. Native title can co-exist with non-Indigenous proprietary rights and in some cases different Indigenous groups can exercise their native title over the same land.