A group representing traditional owners in the ACT has announced its intention to lodge a native title claim covering the whole territory and parts of NSW, the first claim of its kind in a quarter of a century.
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The Ngunawal Nation Traditional Owners Network Group used the 30th anniversary of the High Court's decision in the Mabo case, which recognised the land rights of the Meriam people, to make the announcement.
A spokeswoman for the group, Sonia Shea, said there would be a research process before the group lodged a formal claim under the Native Title Act.
"We've been working together for a number of years to progress and keep moving the process of [protecting] our rights and cultural interests, to make sure that we protect and maintain or cultural interests in anything from ceremonies right through to economic and social viability around our cultural practices," Ms Shea said.
"These are the things that we're wanting to protect and we're looking at making sure our younger generations, in particular, have that leadership and the knowledge of who they are and where they came from, and have a strong kinship base."
Ms Shea said the research process would take another couple of months before legal representatives would be able to file a native title claim on behalf of the group.
A meeting of more than 100 traditional owners unanimously agreed in May 2021 to begin the research process with a view to making a native title claim.
"We've got to keep moving and working towards self determination and showing the future to our younger generations. There might be people who feel uncomfortable about that, but they shouldn't," Ms Shea said.
"There's nothing to be untoward. It's just about us as Ngunawal traditional owners, moving forward together ... to make sure we protect our country, like any other country would."
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said she welcomed the news of a new native title claim.
"We've said before that the ACT government would engage supportively and in good faith if a new native title claim was lodged. I look forward to hearing more as details become available," Ms Stephen-Smith said in a statement to The Canberra Times.
The Ngunawal Nation Traditional Owners Network Group represents more than 300 family members of traditional owners. Family delegates have met regularly over the last several years to discuss the issue of a native title claim.
"We're not trying to take any landholders, or people's homes or whatever - none of that stuff. It's about: we have the right, as the traditional owners of this country that everybody lives and works [on], and we all share, to protect our cultural rights and interests. And we'll do that through a proper legal process," Ms Shea said.
Under the Commonwealth Native Title Act, traditional owners can apply to the Federal Court for a determination of native title.
While native title claims have been in the ACT previously, none have been considered by the Federal Court.
Clauses imposed on the Aboriginal parties which signed a 2001 agreement on the management of Namadgi National Park have prevented preparing new native title claims, a paper from the Australia Institute, a progressive think tank, said.
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The agreement was negotiated between the ACT and traditional owners so that a native title determination application would be withdrawn. Several native title claims had been made in the past.
The agreement meant a special lease was granted over the national park for a period of 99 years on the condition that all native title claims were either fully determined or withdrawn.
Ms Shea said her father, Donald Thomas Bell, had been part of a native title claim withdrawn as a result of that agreement but had not been a party to the agreement.
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