I make these comments as a Traditional Owner, as stated in the Register of Senators’ Interests for the 46th Parliament:
The Northern Land Council records the following traditional interests in land in the Northern Territory held by Senator Malarndirri McCarthy.
Senator McCarthy is a traditional Aboriginal owner, as defined in the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976, of Vanderlin Island (Wurralibi Aboriginal Land Trust) and holds beneficial interests in the Narwinbi Aboriginal Land Trust ('Borroloola Commons') in the Northern Territory.
Senator McCarthy is second generation jungkayi ('custodian' for mother's country) for Wuyaliya country on Southwest Island (Wurralibi Aboriginal Land Trust).
Senator McCarthy is jungkayi for the emu dreaming and country called ngalamja which is on 7 Emus Station.
I acknowledge the concerns held amongst First Nations communities about the potential for exploration and other activity occurring on our land. This concern is intrinsic to who we are, our identity and culture. As I said in my first speech to the Senate in 2016:
I am here today starting off with Yanyuwa, the language of my mother's families in Borroloola in the Gulf of Carpentaria, nearly 1,000 kilometres south-east of Darwin. My families, they gave me this language, the language of my country. I am a woman whose spirit has come from the salt water, and we are known as li-antha wirriyarra, which means our spiritual origin comes from the sea—from the sea country. And I welcome my Kuku, John Bradley and Nona. Thank you. Bauji barra.
The old people would sing the kujika, the songline. They would follow the path of many kujika, the songlines, like the brolga, the kurdarraku, of my grandmother's country—the beautiful brolga country; the country where my spirit always returns to. They would sing of the shark dreaming, and how it travelled from Queensland all the way down the coast to the gulf country and out to the islands of my families. And we dance the dance of the mermaids, the ngardiji, the ngardiji kujika of the Gulf and Barkly country, linking so many of our first nations peoples.
I grew up with the old men and women, the marlbu and barrdi bardis, and I am here thinking about them now, and I am thinking about my own path. My road has been a long road like the song, the kujika, that belongs to the old people. And I am standing here in this place, the Australian Senate, in the place of the people, to represent not just my own people—the Yanyuwa, the Garrwa, the Mara and the Kudanji peoples—but to stand for all people of the Northern Territory…
In the eyes of first-nation's people, cultural exchange both amongst clan groups within Australia and with people outside Australia was a natural part of life well before Captain Cook arrived in 1788. There was already a thriving economic foreign trade occurring between Australia and with countries to our north. It is Aboriginal people who were the diplomats with foreign countries, the trading partners who shared knowledge and exchanged agriculture and marine sources of food and tools in the form of harpoons for hunting and knowledge of carving canoes to set sail in the unpredictable wet season seas. Only last month, in the landmark native title hearing in Borroloola, this diplomatic mission between the Yanyuwa and the Macassans was formally recognised in the Western system of law. The Federal Court recognised this relationship. Yet Aboriginal people have always had a system of governance here, and in Yanyuw we refer to it through the kujika…
When the Commonwealth parliament passed the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act in 1976, it was the Yanyuwa people who stepped up to claim back our land. As a young girl, I watched my grandparents, my elders, as they prepared to give evidence about how the Yanyuwa cared for country, especially the islands north of Borroloola. They gave evidence in an old police station, and they could pretty much only speak in Yanyuwa. They were difficult times, and trying to give evidence was something that we had to continuously learn from. In that time, we found that we could not explain things as well as we would have liked to the Western understanding of Aboriginal culture.
It was to be another four decades of litigation—in Borroloola, in Darwin and in Melbourne. It was litigation that passed on to us, the Yanyuwa descendants, to continue to fight for recognition of who we are, li-antha wirriyarra, a people whose spiritual origin comes from the sea. But we did not walk that journey alone. It was only possible with the steadfast support of the Northern Land Council, and I acknowledge all those staff and council members over those 40 years who walked with my families.
I am grateful that the Interim Report of August 2021 already includes some examination of the impacts that a shale gas industry would have on First Nations peoples, specifically the Traditional Owners of the Beetaloo. Several First Nations people—including Elders, community leaders, Traditional Owners and representative bodies—made submissions (verbal and written) and gave evidence to the inquiry, with these perspectives incorporated into that report.
Extracts from submissions and evidence included in the Interim Report help to grow the understanding of those outside the Northern Territory and our communities of how we experience existing mining and development, as well as our connection to Country and matters of importance including water, which is a critical concern on Country, not just for drinking purposes but also for cultural and spiritual reasons.
At the Darwin public hearings in March 2022, the committee received further evidence from Traditional Owners in the Beetaloo region.
I note the committee received several invitations for on Country visits to see firsthand the impacts of gas exploration, and to hear how those impacts affect First Nations communities. Whilst regrettable for my colleagues that they were not able to take up those invitations due to the COVID–19 situation in the Northern Territory and the timeline for this inquiry, I express my personal gratitude to those who extended these invitations.
As Labor senators noted in our Additional Comments to the Interim Report, we acknowledge the efforts of the Northern Land Council (NLC) to inform and consult with a range of Traditional Owners and interests over a number of years, according to its statutory requirements under the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 and the Native Title Act 1993.
The Interim Report also noted the committee heard that, while the NLC has consulted in relation to proposals for shale gas exploration, a significant First Nations cohort does not consider that it has been properly consulted.
As we did in our comments at that time, I continue to urge that consideration be given to how the efforts of the NLC can be further supported to ensure even more rigorous consultation with affected Traditional Owners and Native Title interests.
In particular, at the public hearing in Darwin on 22 March, the NLC noted that it had not yet received a funding agreement for $2 million allocated in the 2021-22 Budget—almost twelve months previously. According to the government, this was to ‘build the capacity of the Northern Land Council to facilitate land use agreements and drive economic opportunities in the Beetaloo sub-basin’.
The federal government’s inaction in delivering on this funding is another example of it being all promise but no delivery. Failing to promptly deliver this funding has not allowed the land council to ‘build its capacity’, as intended by the original budget measure, in preparation for increased negotiations with Native Title holders as the Beetaloo Cooperative Drilling Program (BCD Program) continues to be rolled out.
In my first speech, I also said:
It is time the Commonwealth encouraged more seriously the growth of the Northern Territory as perhaps the seventh state in the Australian Federation. Allow the people of the Northern Territory to fully make our own decisions, determine our own future, by engaging in a fair partnership so that we, who have won our lands back—nearly 50 per cent of the landmass—and the young people of the Territory feel they have solid employment, a future filled with shared prosperity and hope.
In relation to the $50 million taxpayer funds committed under the BCD Program, the Interim Report also noted the committee heard and agrees that there are better ways to spend this money than developing a shale gas industry in the Beetaloo, but that circumstances have moved far beyond such a simple option.
I look forward to the committee further reporting on its examination of options to provide additional resources toward infrastructure and other projects for the betterment and advancement of First Nations people, as forecast in the Interim Report.
Senator Malarndirri McCarthy
Substitute Member