Traditional Owners call for Parks Australia to hand over full control of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park
The head of Uluru’s community-owned Aboriginal corporation has called for Parks Australia to hand over full control of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park to its Traditional Owners.
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THE HEAD of Uluru’s community-owned Aboriginal corporation has called for Parks Australia to hand over full control of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park to its Traditional Owners.
Mutitjulu Community Aboriginal Corporation director Craig Woods said the current management arrangement of the park, which is jointly run by MCAC and Parks Australia, has been unsuccessful.
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Mr Woods told the ABC on Thursday that Traditional Owners had met with the Central Land Council (CLC) to discuss their concerns about the park’s management.
He said that Parks Australia, which is a federal government department, had not created enough employment opportunities for the local community.
“You would think after nearly 40 years there would be an Anangu admin, but there’s no pathways put for those people able to sit on that role,” he said.
In a statement, Parks Australia said the Senior Advisory Group (SAG) established in March by Environment Minister Sussan Ley to examine joint management arrangements at Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa, as well as Kakadu and Booderee national parks, was focused on engaging with Traditional Owners “to understand their aspirations for the future management of their Parks and how to improve the current governance of the joint management framework”.
It also said as part of the consultation process, the SAG secretariat and CLC had agreed to facilitate a workshop, which had been held in the past week.
“The purpose of this workshop was to gain the views of Traditional Owners on improvements on joint management arrangements at Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park,” the statement read.
“This was specifically designed as a two-step process and therefore a precursor to the CLC and Anangu meeting with the SAG.
“The SAG is working independently to provide advice to the Minister on best practice for joint management of Commonwealth National Parks.”
The statement said the SAG would provide its advice to Ms Ley in the second half of this year.
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