WA: Govt talks to Kimberley people about giving freehold title
By Selina Day
PERTH, April 2 AAP - The West Australian government is in talks with an Aboriginalpeople in the state's remote north over a contentious native title claim which has bouncedback and forth through the courts for almost a decade.
The government is negotiating, as a gesture of goodwill, to grant the Miriuwung-Gajerrongpeople of the Kimberley freehold title over 50,000 hectares of Crown land - if the traditionalowners agree to settle their claim.
The claim - which became known as the Ben Ward case - has been the subject of a numberof appeals and counter appeals, causing confusion over its status.
WA Aboriginal Affairs Minister Eric Ripper today said nine years after the people appliedfor the recognition of native title rights, the state government was trying to bring thematter to conclusion through negotiation.
The claim centres on a 7,900 square kilometre area in the East Kimberley region andpart of the Northern Territory.
The Miriuwung-Gajerrong first applied to be recognised as the land's traditional ownersin April 1994, and the claim was referred to the Federal Court when the then-coalitiongovernment would not mediate on the application.
The case became the longest running matter in the Federal Court's history, lasting 83 days.
In November 1998, Justice Malcolm Lee recognised the existence of native title in thedetermination area.
The WA and NT governments, and other parties, appealed the decision to the Full FederalCourt - which in March 2000 recognised the existence of native title but set aside manyof Justice Lee's findings.
The claim then went to the High Court - with WA and the NT as well as the Miriuwung-Gajerrongpeople appealing against elements of the Full Court's decision.
From there it went back to the Federal Court for further hearing and determination.
Mr Ripper said the Miriuwung-Gajerrong's road to recognition of native title rightshad been long and tortuous - and the extent of native title rights and interests stillhad to be determined.
He said the government knew native title law was limited in responding to the aspirationsof indigenous people, a fact highlighted by the protracted passage of the Ben Ward matter.
So the government was now negotiating with the Miriuwung-Gajerrong to grant the peoplefreehold title to a 50,000-hectare area on the WA-NT border known as Yardungarll, he said.
"This would form the centrepiece of a package that recognises the Miriuwung-Gajerrongpeople's traditional ownership and economic development aspirations," Mr Ripper said.
AAP sd/tnf/jlw
KEYWORD: MIRIUWUNG
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