General News
27 August, 2024
At long last: Determination ends prolonged battle for recognition
The Mitakoodi and Mayi people have been granted Native Title over their lands.
Almost 30 years ago, the move towards Native Title recognition at Cloncurry began with just one woman – Pearl Connelly.
The diminutive grandmother was working as a cook at the Kalkadoon Aboriginal Sobriety House in 1996 when she decided to take her envelope containing that week’s salary and pay for the first lodgement of a Native Title application for the Mitakoodi and Mayi people.
It cost about $500.
Ms Connelly had seen the Mabo case play out at the High Court in Canberra a few years earlier and had watched the passage of the Native Title Act through federal parliament.
“No one else was doing anything so I decided to do something,” she told North West Weekly moments after Federal Court Justice Melissa Perry formally awarded her and eight other applicants Native Title over 25,700 square kilometres of land stretching across much of headwaters and tributaries of the Cloncurry River.
“It has taken a long time to reach this point, but I am over the moon today.”
The length of the struggle to reach the eventual Native Title outcome, which was announced at a special sitting of the Federal Court at Chinaman Creek Dam last week, is no better illustrated than by the banners waved proudly by the Mitakoodi and Mayi people as they walked towards the makeshift outdoor courtroom.
Each banner carried the image of a lost loved one – someone who had not lived to see the determination day arrive.
Among those carrying a banner was Mitakoodi claimant Ronald Major.
He told North West Weekly that carrying an image of his Uncle James Newman to the court ceremony was about paying tribute to the people who were no longer alive to see the determination outcome.
“They are watching down on us,” he said.
“The Eagle-Hawk is our totem animal for the Mitakoodi people, and I look up today and I can see them circling above us – they are giving us protection – our ancestors are watching over us today.
“They are here with us, and they are proud.”
The determination of Native Title recognises the “deep and ongoing connection to the land and waters” of the Mitakoodi and Mayi people within the claim area.
The complex and time-consuming process to establish this connection involved using the notebooks and academic papers of anthropologists who studied North West peoples almost a century ago, which were then cross-checked by contemporary researchers and supported by eight reports written over three decades, to prove the nine claimants were direct descendants of the ancestors named “Minnie, Thomas ‘Tiger’ Mitchell, Dinah, Topsy, Sophie and Billy Chisholm”.
The determination handed down by Justice Perry stated that the multiple expert reports, affidavits and witness statements proved the Native Title claim group’s “deep spiritual association with the land and waters of the claim area, the particular spiritual significance of the Cloncurry River which runs through the application area, their responsibilities to care for the land and protect sites of significance, their right to speak for country and control access to places”.
At least 200 descendants of the Mitakoodi and Mayi people gathered at Chinaman Creek Dam to hear the determination decision.
They walked about two kilometres to the court along the footpath, past the sculpture of the wedged-tailed eagle, the walkway along the dam banks and the children’s playground.
Even though it took place outside, under a handful of marquees and the scattering of eucalyptus trees, there was still no photography or audio-visual recording allowed during the court hearing.
The makeshift courtroom saw Justice Perry sitting on a white fold-out chair, elevated on a fold-out table, which rested on a small stage.
The table was draped in a dark navy cloth that displayed the Australian Coat of Arms.
The barristers for the Queensland government and the applications sat at fold-out tables to the right of the Justice, which were draped in a white cloth.
All courtroom professionals wore their black legal robes as the determination was read aloud from both a microphone on a stand and handheld microphones.
The crowd overflowed past the seats available, and groups of people sat on the ground or stood in the available shade.
On a cloudless day, the mercury rose above 30 degrees throughout the hour-long hearing.
Many in the crowd wore matching polo shirts with the golden Eagle-Hawk totem on both sides.
Others wore or carried Aboriginal flags. Some wiped away tears during the ceremony.
Speaking from a microphone on a small stand, Justice Perry congratulated the hard work of the applicant group who persevered over many years to reach the Native Title milestone.
“It is important to emphasise that the rights and interests recognised in the consent determination are not conferred by the Act- nor does the making of this consent determination confer those rights,” she told the special court.
“Rather, the consent determination formally recognises rights and interests of the Mitakoodi and Mayi People which have always existed and which continue to exist today.”
When the reading of the determination concluded, the crowd let off a loud cheer with clapping that lasted several minutes.