Kuku Warra native title claim creates Laura controversy
A Cape York native title claim granting land rights to existing leases at Laura has caused confusion and divided locals amid claims of limited consultation and a lack of communication.
A Cape York native title claim granting land rights to existing leases at Laura has caused confusion and divided locals amid claims of limited consultation and lack of communication.
On November 23 last year Chief Justice Debra Mortimer handed down a Federal Court ruling in favour of a Kuku Warra native title claim to land and waters including the town of Laura, Welcome Station, and parts of the Deighton River.
The claim has been mapped out over the Quinkan and Regional Cultural Centre and Ang-Gnarra Caravan Park owned by the Ang-Gnarra Aboriginal Corporation and leased to Olkola Aboriginal Corporation.
Freehold tenure extinguishes native title rights, and Aboriginal land trust titles such as those held by the Ang-Gnarra can coexist, however Ang-Gnarra made no claim to land within the Kuku Warra boundary.
When the lease to Olkola terminates in 2029 Kuku Warra native title holders will have exclusive rights to the land.
Susan Marsh of the Laura Rangers said there was a great degree of uncertainty in regard to how management of the land will proceed.
“If you look at any of these determinations there is a lot of ill feeling, the Laura people feel like they have been ignored,” she said.
“It’s just a mess and the fact that the determination has gone through it is going to be very hard to change.”
Griffith University professor of archaeology Lynley Wallis attached to the Centre for Social and Cultural Research has formed close ties with the people of Laura during the course of her research.
Professor Wallis said she was aware that some traditional owners from Laura had made efforts to access the minutes of meetings hosted by the Cape York Land Council in relation to various aspects of the Kuku Warra consent determination.
While the CYLC responded in writing to traditional owners, it’s claimed they did not provide them with all requested information, specifically the names of participants at each meeting and the minutes of the meetings, which would have provided information about resolutions that had been passed.
The CYLC vigorously denied this claim and said the locals had been making the requests to the wrong body.
“Many traditional owners are confused by the native title process and what has transpired leading up to and following the Kuku Warra consent determination,” Prof Wallis said.
“This is not in keeping with the concept of ‘free, prior and informed consent’ during the decision making process,” she claimed.
Free, prior and informed consent is a requirement set out in an Article 19 of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and relates to the adoption and implementation of legislative or administrative matters.
An email sent last year to the Laura Aboriginal people who sent the request for information, seen by the Cairns Post, by Cape York Land Council revealed that it only provided some information that satisfied their request.
“At the pre-authorisation meeting (July 19, 2023) CYLC staff members provided information about the proposed native title agreement … no objections were raised by any of the persons present,” the email from the land council read.
It’s also claimed meeting participants were explicitly banned from recording the meeting.
Some residents say a situation now exists whereby some of the Laura traditional owners, some of whom are members of the Kuku Warra PBC – and most are also members of the Ang-Gnarra Aboriginal Corporation – have not been fully informed about their own claim.
The Kuku Warra claim covering more than 330,900ha is part of an area known as the “Wood area,” because Ray Wood was the anthropologist engaged to prepare material on behalf of Cape York United #1 Claim applicants which the Laura claim is part of.
A Cape York Land Council spokesman said he was unaware of tension within the Laura community and stated the claim had been processed correctly.
“If the PBC has been established they need to ask for the information from the PBC, that’s where they can get all the information,” he said.
“There would have been proper due process, they make the decision as to who sits PBC, that’s the mob themselves.”
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Originally published as Kuku Warra native title claim creates Laura controversy
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