Perth, Western Australia

3-5 June

The annual national Native Title Conference remains the leading Indigenous policy conference in Australia and a flagship event for the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS). This year the Native Title Conference will be co-convened by the South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council (SWALSC) and hosted by the Noongar people, traditional owners of Perth, and the south west of Western Australia. 

The Noongar people wish for this year’s conference to focus on Koorah, Yira, Boordah – ‘past, present, future’. The 2008 conference will examine how native title can recognise and strengthen the fabric of Indigenous nations: acknowledge the past, respect the people of today and their struggle for recognition, and build a future. The sub themes include:  

• developing young leaders

• women’s perspectives on native title

• negotiation, mediation and conflict

• land and water management

• governance

• a national voice – Indigenous representation

• partnerships

• economic development

• collective enterprise and private wealth

• government and native title

• reconciliation

• developments in law, policy and practice