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Biaggini, Diane --- "Recent Happenings" [2002] IndigLawB 10; (2002) 5(14) Indigenous Law Bulletin 24

Recent Happenings

Compiled by Diane Biaggini

27 November

Indigenous boxing legend and Aboriginal education worker Joe Donovan passed away, aged 52. Mr Donovan represented Australia at the Mexico Olympic Games in 1968 and at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, New Zealand. In 1995 SOCOG invited him to become a role model for the 2000 Olympic Games. He was also a respected Aboriginal educational worker at Cambridge Park High where he helped many Indigenous and non-Indigenous students of the school.

1 December

The National Native Title Tribunal’s annual report registered a record 18 determinations of native title in the year 2000-2001. The number of notifications of native title claims also peaked during 2000-2001 with 576 applications. The annual report also predicted that the volume and variety of native title work would increase, and that a greater number of people would have rights with respect to what happens on a greater amount of land and water.

Queensland Premier Peter Beattie warned that there would be genocide of Indigenous communities on Cape York if efforts to control alcohol abuse failed. However, NSW Premier Bob Carr told ABC Radio that it was impossible to institute an alcohol ban across Aboriginal communities as suggested in Queensland because communities were not isolated. Mr Carr said that more should be done to ‘rescue’ Aboriginal children from drug and alcohol dependent parents.

6 December

In an Australian first, Darwin native title claimants became property developers in a land rights deal. The Larrakia people in Darwin have surrendered their claim to over 250 hectares of Crown land on the city outskirts in return for a commercial lease covering 20 per cent of the land. Profits from the land sale will be put into a Larrakia discretionary trust and will be used for further investment, housing and health.

7 December

Ex-Rugby Union players Glen, Mark and Gary Ella, with business partner Rob Horton, set up Ella Management and Events, a sports management company, to identify and promote Indigenous sporting talent.

8 December

Senior Aboriginal leader ATSIC commissioner Rodney Dillon is campaigning for three seats in Federal Parliament to be reserved for Indigenous candidates. Mr Dillon believes these seats would give Indigenous Australians greater autonomy and provide role models within the Indigenous community.

10 December

The late Dr Arnold ‘Puggy’ Hunter was awarded the Human Rights Medal for 2001. The award acknowledges Dr Hunter’s unwavering commitment over many years to improving Aboriginal health in the face of hostility, financial hardship, and disruption to his family and health.

11 December

The Kimberly Land Council is reported to be concerned at the West Australian Government deal delivering Mr Kerry Packer 16,800 hectares of valuable freehold land. While ratified by the WA Government, the deal remains conditional on successful native title negotiations between Mr Packer’s Consolidated Pastoral Company and the traditional land owners, the Miriuwung Gajerrong people.

Nearly a third of Australia’s Indigenous men were arrested over a five year period according to an Australian National University report. The report found that 31.6 per cent of Indigenous males and 9.4 per cent of Indigenous females aged over 13 years had been arrested between 1989 and 1994.

The New South Wales Government announced that it will amend the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 (NSW). The amendments will focus on recommendations from the Independent Commission Against Corruption investigation into Aboriginal land councils, which include heightened internal accountability and the introduction of procedures to help staff manage land councils more effectively.

13 December

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) announced the entry of Eddie Mabo’s personal papers, and the legal and historical materials relating to the Mabo case, into the Memory of the World register. The journal kept on board the Endeavour by Captain James Cook is the only other Australian contribution to the exclusive world register.

14 December

Banduk Marika was presented with the $50,000 Red Ochre Award. As well as being a high profile artist, Marika is also a passionate advocate of land rights and conservation, and helped set up Gamarrwa Nuwal Landcare in the Northern Territory.

17 December

The Yorta Yorta people won the right to take their court battle for native title over traditional lands in NSW and Victoria to the High Court of Australia. The ruling, by Justices Gummow, McHugh and Kirby, approved the Yorta Yorta people’s application for special leave to appeal an earlier Federal Court decision that denied their claim.

18 December

Cathy Freeman was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Ballarat. Freeman was honoured for her ‘determination and willingness to tackle challenges.’

20 December

Coroner Dick Wallace found that major legal errors led to the 28 day mandatory sentencing of the Groote Eylandt boy who subsequently committed suicide in the Don Dale detention centre last year. As the boy was under 15 when he offended mandatory sentencing should not have applied to him. The boy also served an extra 10 days because the court failed to backdate his sentence from when he was taken into custody. The magistrate was also unaware of a victim-offender conferencing program available to him as an alternative to sentencing the boy to a custodial sentence.

A report commissioned by the Queensland Government and compiled by Tony Fitzgerald into crime, violence and drugs in Cape York Peninsula communities was submitted to the Queensland Premier Peter Beattie. Some of the report’s recommendations include contracting licences out for community canteens, making some communities ‘dry’ and changing school days to address truancy on the Cape. The Aboriginal Coordinating Council (ACC) – which represents nine communities across the State – said the three-month consultation period on which the recommendations are based, was not long enough. ACC Chairman Thomas Hudson said this was ‘not something [Mr Beattie] or anyone else should be rushing into without the full consent of the communities involved.’


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