Major Projects

NATIVE TITLE LAND AND WATER

Project Overview
Native title and fresh water
Native title and ecology
Native title and joint management

Project Overview

Native title recognises the unique relationship between native title holders and their lands and waters. The importance of land and water management on the growing native title estate is gaining increasing recognition in government programs and policies. This project has three elements: native title and fresh water; native title and ecology; and native title and the joint-management of national parks.

Native title and fresh water

Jessica Weir has submitted to a publisher the book-length manuscript Murray River Country: An Ecological Dialogue from a Catastrophic Catchment. This manuscript is supported by the Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations. Together with Steven Ross, Dr Weir also published a paper examining the establishment of an alliance of 10 traditional owner groups along the Murray Lower Darling Rivers within the context of native title.

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Weir J and S Ross. 2007. 'Beyond native title: the Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations', in F Morphy and B Smith (eds), The Social Effects of Native Title, Recognition, Translation Co-existence CAEPR Research Monograph No. 27 ANU E-Press.

Native title and ecology

Dr Weir convened a session on native title and ecology at the AIATSIS Conference 2007. In that session she also presented a paper ‘Native title and Environmental Management’. Papers presented at this Conference will contribute to a book on native title and ecology that Dr Weir is editing. This collection of papers will focus on how the meaning of Indigenous peoples’ relationships with country are expressed in relation to the native title system: through the claims process, how native title has been conceptualised in the law courts and parliaments, and the plans and possibilities of native title holders with their native title lands.

Native title and joint management of national parks

Ms Bauman completed a case study of Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) National Park. This was one of three case studies (Dermot Smyth carried out the other two case studies) involving Indigenous partnerships and joint management as part of a broader study into the management of Indigenous protected areas commissioned by the Poola Foundation. The study was in response to a joint proposal by the Australian Collaboration and the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), as part of the ‘Success in Aboriginal Organisations’ project undertaken by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS). Documents and presentations arising from the project are available below.

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Australian Collaboration & Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Maps to Success: Successful Strategies in Indigenous Organisations. Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies in association with the Australian Collaboration and the Poola Foundation (Tom Kantor fund), Canberra (text only PDF format 261KB).
Australian Collaboration & Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Organising for Success: Policy Report. Successful Strategies in Indigenous Organisation. Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies in association with the Australian Collaboration and the Poola Foundation (Tom Kantor fund), Canberra (text only PDF format 342KB).
Bauman, T., D. Smyth, (plus case study reps), 2007. Indigenous Partnerships in Protected Area Management in Australia: three case studies, AIATSIS Seminar Series 18th June 2007 (PDF format 674KB).
Bauman, T. and D Smyth. 2007. Indigenous Partnerships in Protected Area Management in Australia: Three case studies. Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies in association with the Australian Collaboration and the Poola Foundation (Tom Kantor fund), Canberra 9 (PDF format 2,654KB).
Smyth, D. and T. Bauman. 2007. Policy Briefing Paper for the Australian Conservation Foundation and the Australian Collaboration: Outcomes of three case studies in Indigenous Partnerships in Protected Area Management. Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (funded by the Poola Foundation (Tom Kantor fund)), Canberra (PDF format 160KB).

Ms Bauman continues to examine joint management issues within the context of native title and gave a presentation at the AIATSIS Conference 2007 emphasising the need for evaluating joint management as process, partnership and relationship; examining how native title rights and interests might be realised and evaluated in the case of the native title settlement of Parks in the Northern Territory parks settlements. A copy of this presentation is available for download below.

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Bauman, T. 2007. Joint management as partnership and process Power point presentation to AIATSIS Conference Protecting Country Session 8 November 2007, ANU, Canberra (PDF format 341 KB).