Draft Proposals Paper - Full - Victorian Environmental Assessment ...

Council believes a properly resourced program is required
to facilitate greater involvement of Indigenous people in
management and decision-making processes for public
land. The program needs to include a brokering and
advisory capacity to assist Traditional Owner Groups to
undertake processes that achieve agreement on traditional
owner identification, registration and effective internal
processes and decision-making. Achieving these things
may lead to improved outcomes (including resourcing and
capacity building) through more structured and strategic
engagement between public land and natural resource
management agencies and Aboriginal Traditional Owners.
Agreements established by processes such as Murray
Darling Basin Commission’s Murray Lower Darling Rivers
Indigenous Nations (MLDRIN) Living Murray Initiative and
Native Title registration could be used as a basis to
formally identify and register Traditional Owner Groups.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Increasing Indigenous community capacity
R18 That:
government provides assistance with strategic
decision-making regarding public land management
along the River Murray and across boundaries of
Aboriginal Traditional Owner Groups by establishing
a properly resourced program to provide the
following services:
(a) a mediated and resourced process to facilitate:
(i) Aboriginal Traditional Owner identification and
registration,
(ii) engagement of Aboriginal Traditional Owner
Groups or bodies with public land management
agencies,
(iii) group internal decision-making and
procedures or protocols such as informed consent
and choice of spokespersons,
(iv) the establishment of boundaries of Country
between groups, and
(v) dispute resolution.
(b) administrative support for relevant Aboriginal
Traditional Owner Groups,
(c) coordination of consultation requests from
government agencies and preferential selection of
appropriately qualified Traditional Owner Groups or
organisations for contract services to work on land
and natural resource management projects on
Country,
(d) assistance for relevant Aboriginal Traditional
Owner Groups with targeted training and capacity
building exercises such as work placements,
traineeships and use of existing programs to
establish Aboriginal rangers and land management
contractors to work on public land on traditional
Country,
(e) assistance with coordination of relevant
Aboriginal Traditional Owner Groups’ responsibilities
under cultural heritage and native title processes
where these coincide with public land
management,
(f) support for initiatives aimed at retaining
traditional knowledge and expertise and assisting
with the integration of this knowledge in land and
natural resource management projects and
partnerships on Country, and
(g) support for Aboriginal Traditional Owner Groups
wanting to develop a permit regime as described in
recommendations R26 and R27 for the traditional
hunting, gathering and ceremonial use of Country.
Notes:
1. Aboriginal Traditional Owners are defined as those people
who are the direct descendants of specific Indigenous
groups present prior to European settlement.
2. Indigenous people refer to land and natural resources of an
area over which they have a profound cultural and spiritual
relationship as their traditional Country.
Current management of public land in Victoria does not
generally provide for meaningful participation of
Indigenous people in decision-making, although there are
some examples of positive relationships and effective
consultative arrangements. At the same time, many
Indigenous communities have reflected a general
aspiration for increased involvement in public land
management, particularly on their traditional Country.
The Discussion Paper for this Investigation provided
detailed examples of various models of Indigenous
involvement. Involving Indigenous people in the
management of national parks and other protected areas
is a common approach in Australian states and territories.
This approach has rarely been taken in Victoria, although
Council notes the recently announced Gunditjmara
agreement which includes a form of co-management of
Mount Eccles National Park in western Victoria. Council is
also aware that there are negotiations currently underway
between the Victorian government and North West Nation
Clans Aboriginal Corporation that may involve public land
in the Investigation area. Currently advisory bodies or
committees for public land may be established under
various land Acts, and these can be a useful means of
becoming involved in management.
The proposals below allow for various levels of Indigenous
involvement in public land management
(Recommendations R19-R25). In some cases, specific areas
have been designated for particular management regimes,
but it is important that legislative provision is made for
additional areas to be added in the future as Aboriginal
Traditional Owners decide on the level of management
involvement they wish to have for particular areas of
public land. Indigenous communities in the River Red
Gum Forests Investigation area want increased
involvement in public land management generally and also
for specific areas of public land.
16 River Red Gum Forests Investigation July 2007