This news comes from Welcome to country (9 May 2018), an independent Indigenous news/media website. It tells of a story where traditional owners have just acted together, to take the land, over which their ancestors has traditional custodianship.
Traditional Waanyi Owners have reclaimed ownership of the infamous Lawn Hill cattle station. The Lawn Hill station once had 40 sets of Aboriginal ears nailed to the walls of the station’s homestead.
The brutal history is a common story across Australia where land was taken under the most shocking circumstances. Just as those who faced the injustices back then, today’s generation suffers the injustice of being left out and excluded from opportunities to develop the land the way we wish. This is changing on Waanyi land with this latest action by the Waanyi people. Watch below:
According to the media release by the Waanyi PBC, the Waanyi people wish to take back 100 percent full control of the station where previously 49% was held by New Century Resources under the joint Lawn Hill and Riversleigh Pastoral Company. The action comes after growing mistrust of the LHRPHC by the Waanyi PBC who claim they are being denied access to financial records which makes it impossible to know how much profits are being made under the LHRPHC name.
The Waanyi PBC also allege that LHRPHC membership records are not being provided on request and legitimate applications by Waanyi people are being ignored or denied. The partnership between the Waanyi Advancement Limited (WAL) and NCR under the LHRPHC was supposed to be an initiative that lead to financial empowerment for the Waanyi people but now, that only appears to be possible through complete 100% ownership and control.
Make sure to follow updates on this story by following Alec Doomadgee, the chairman of the Waanyi PBC on Facebook. We will be waiting to see the response by the media towards this historic action. You can be sure we will call them out if they choose to try and ignore these developments.
I’m 76 ( ashamedely white ) living in crappy Melbourne, but totally with you in spirit. Wish I could buy a campevan and visit and support you all. Many blessings an best wishes, Jack.
No doubt, this will be as successful as just about every other farming venture by indigenous people.
I was greatly encourage towards hope when Indigenous peoples from [I believe] several nations got together to stop privitisation of the Newcastle branch line rail corridor, after Gladys used our tax to dismantle the only possible express route from Newcastle CBD to Sydney and direct route to towns such as Maitland.
In my disability group, I’ll be asking an Indigenous person for help to see if we can do this in our area. We have high Indigenous numbers and it seems clear to me that we all share similar needs to access our amenities and environment.
In the eighties, it was quite possible to have equitable access to the Byron coast, Lismore, and now even Queensland University in Brisbane could be available. Whites just don’t seem to have the ‘clout’. We are all so disconnected while we are hooked into Facebook – where people do not answer their messages even.
It would be good to see our elderly, disabled, unemployed and others get together with the Indigenous people. I’m really glad that we have Indigenous people coming to our disability group and don’t feel any need to be ‘segregated’ as I have experienced in another coastal group for people with medical problems, some Indigenous guys would come only in the back door for lunch and not sit at the table with the whites.
Since my family has Indigenous members mixed in with everyone – I’ve never felt this segregational/separational/tribal distance thing before, but I now see this is not just about Indigenous and non-Indigenous, but every town and village in the region has this ‘insider-outsider’ thing.
We often share common ground. However, our common enemy – the wealthy psychopathic land-grabbing, tax-sherking ‘entrepreneurs’ makes good use of our lack of cohesion.
I just wonder how nomadic people can lay claim to specific areas of land