By Sally Mitchell
DARWIN — August 23 was the 30th anniversary of the beginning of a struggle which ultimately forced the Australian government to recognise and legislate for Aboriginal rights to land.
In 1966 at Wave Hill cattle station 200 Gurindji stockmen and their families walked off the job after suffering appalling living conditions and little, if any, pay.
The campaign was led by Vincent Lingiari, an elder of the Gurindji at Wave Hill; Dexter Daniels, an Aboriginal organiser with the North Australian Workers Union; other unions and the Communist Party of Australia.
The Gurindji struck for a decent wage, but their deeper aspirations for the return of traditional land became focal. It was not the first Aboriginal strike against systemic racism, but it significantly increased public knowledge of and support for Aboriginal land rights.
In May 1970, clan leaders of Yirrkala took legal action against Nabalco mining company and the Commonwealth government. This was the first land rights court case in Australia.
Over time black activists rallied together with white supporters who realised the links between fighting for women's and workers' rights and Aboriginal self-determination. Strikes, demonstrations, freedom rides and tent embassies all played a part in forcing land rights reforms by the Whitlam Labor government in the early and mid-1970s.
The Northern Territory Aboriginal Land Rights Act (NT ALRA) was eventually legislated in 1976 by the Fraser Liberal government. Initially it was to apply across Australia. However, this was opposed by state governments and it was limited to the Northern Territory still under Commonwealth control.
Under the act most of the existing reserves became Aboriginal inalienable (i.e. cannot be sold) freehold. The act recognised, for the first time, traditional ownership of land. The NT ALRA is much stronger than the Native Title Act (NTA) which was legislated in 1994 by the Keating Labor government following the 1992 decision on Mabo.
The NT ALRA gives Aborigines more control over their land especially in relation to mining companies. Under the NTA the government can abolish native title if, for example, an agreement is not reached between a mining company and the Aboriginal people, although some form of compensation must be given.
The NT ALRA has been advantageous for some Aboriginal people, although the return of land has been systematically blocked by a hostile NT government. Mining companies have sought to prevent this act from spreading across Australia because it gives Aboriginal people the power to disallow mining on their land.
While some people have regained their land under the NT ALRA, it is often in arid or wetland areas unwanted by non-Aboriginal interests; before the act thousands of people lost fertile areas to the pastoral industry.
Tracker Tilmouth, director of the Central Land Council, says that "about 3000 people in the CLC region are currently unable to live on their traditional land; it was expropriated for pastoral use and not available for claim under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act.
"What non-Aboriginal people don't realise and the legislation sadly ignores, is that Aboriginal people not only have a responsibility to live on their traditional land, but an inability, under Aboriginal law, to live on someone else's traditional country. This literally puts these people in no man's land."
The NT government plans to enact the sunset clause of the ALRA as scheduled on June 5, 1997. From then, no further land claims can be made.
Further, mining companies are pushing a willing Coalition government to extinguish native title on pastoral leases so that they don't have to negotiate with Aboriginal people to explore and mine.