One of the Northern Territory's longest running Aboriginal land claims has been resolved this week after more than four decades. The event near Canteen Creek in Central Australia drew politicians from across the country to celebrate alongside the woman who first lodged the claim.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Gathering for a historic return of land.
00:05Always lost, and always welcome, Africa's land.
00:14The last surviving traditional owner to lodge this land rights claim
00:18didn't think she would see this day.
00:21I'm thinking I'm getting old now, I might get sick now.
00:25I might be going to lose that country now.
00:29I would pass away now. I got real sick.
00:34The Waqaya Eliawara traditional owners and families this week
00:38have danced on their country near Canteen Creek,
00:41southeast of Tennant Creek,
00:43to mark the land being formally returned
00:46after more than four decades of fighting for justice.
00:50I always keep going dry and hooded for a long time.
00:55They've come and lived today every meeting.
01:00What about it?
01:02Today we're making history again.
01:04The Waqaya Eliawara land claim is one of our last two outstanding claims
01:10under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act.
01:14The Central Land Council lodged the claim in 1980,
01:18and since then, traditional owners have received two of three portions of the claimed area,
01:23agreeing to withdraw the township of Canteen Creek.
01:27Now they're getting the remaining land.
01:30They've cut a deal to surrender native title rights
01:33and have around 484,000 hectares of land returned.
01:40I'm happy about it.
01:43I'm afraid of myself.
01:46For a long time I was choking with that blade,
01:50biting, getting it.
01:55A legacy of land that can now be handed down.
01:59This is the northeast part.
02:21If you don't knowици,
02:23you can get connected leave the Looks One Arcade Blood.