SPEECH BY COUNCILLOR ROY AH SEE
LAUNCH OF ILLEGAL DUMPING HANDBOOK AND DVD

18 MARCH 2008, PARRAMATTA, SYDNEY

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First let me pay my respects to the traditional owners of the land we stand on today, the Dharak people.

On behalf of the NSW Aboriginal Land, thank you for the opportunity to speak at today's launch of the booklet and DVD to draw Aboriginal people's attention to the issue of illegal dumping, the clean-up of waste and caring for country.

But before I go further, let me introduce myself. 

I am the elected representative for the NSWALC's Sydney-Newcastle Region. 

We have eight other elected Aboriginal representatives who represent Aboriginal people from those eight regions.

I suppose you could call us leaders. 

My mother, Patricia Rose, was in her own right a leader. 

As a single parent, against the odds, she raised a family of eight on the Nanima Reserve some 10 kilometres from Wellington on the banks of the Macquarie River.

They were tough times for Aboriginal families growing up on a reserve.

But one of her key passions for all of her children was to get out there and make a difference. 

That is why I ran for election in the Land Council elections nearly two years ago. 

That is why I am here today.

Make no mistake about it, what has been launched today are important resource.

Illegal dumping is, for many of our land councils, a major issue.

In some quarters the attitude seems to be "Oh that's only Aboriginal land, so we'll go ahead and dump material".

There are numerous instances of this having occurred.  

I even know of one land council that had truck loads of asbestos waste dumped on their land - and they had to clean it up. 

And they did so from their own resources without recompense.

Not before time we now have a resource that will help our land councils to access programs to affect clean up operations.

After all, outside of the State Government, Aboriginal Land Council is one of the biggest land holders in New South Wales.

All too often this is overlooked.

So, too, is the fact that Aboriginal people having been caring for country for time immemorial.

It is part of our culture.

In fact it is part of Aboriginal law, a law that is not written down but is passed from generation to generation verbally.

To us land sustains us, feeds us spiritually as well as emotionally. 

It exists as an integral part of the cultures of Aboriginal people across Australia.

For non-Aboriginal people it has the rather patronizing title of "customary law".

For us, it is the law and no other can replace it.

That law covers social, cultural, spiritual and even economic behaviour.

It governs relationships between people and resolves conflict.

It decides marriages and the complex obligations that is our traditional society.

Aboriginal culture reflects the interaction between the people of the present, their ancestors and their environment.

Aboriginal cultures, be they desert, coastal, mountain or forested plains cultures focus on the relationship of the group to the land.

We have a unique role in caring for country and all that this means.

With our traditional knowledge bank built up over thousands of generations, Aboriginal people can provide answers to the environmental problems we face.

Aboriginal people are a very proud people.

All are united in their battle to achieve greater equality and to fight injustice.

All are threatened by the current global environmental crisis.

Indigenous peoples have the smallest carbon footprint, yet are often the most vulnerable.

If we do not address climate change we're going to destroy our Mother Earth,"

Australia is particularly at risk.

We are one big island surrounded by smaller islands.

When our sea waters rise we're going to have environmental refugees, where people will be forced to leave their home because of climate change.

Pacific islanders are already losing their traditional coastal lands to rising sea levels.

Salt inundation of freshwater supplies also threatens the Torres Strait Islands and as local culture is intimately connected to sea country, climate change could affect traditional cultural practices, food supplies and the intergenerational transfer of knowledge.

The severe ecological stress of the Murray-Darling Basin which is facing drought due to climate and human factors.

Sadly, however, the knowledge our communities have accumulated of how best to care for country at the local level is all too often ignored or at best little utilized.

Governments - whether Federal, State or Local Government, have so often failed to discuss these issues with Aboriginal people and try and learn from this knowledge and incorporate it in any plans to protect land.

I have often heard land councils say they are treated like some sought of P and C Organisation.

Governments could well learn from Aboriginal people about the most effective way to care for country.

They would do better by seeking  advise and entering into proper and constructive dialogue with our people rather than too readily simply imposing views and possible solutions without such dialogue and open exchange of views and information..

Hopefully this latest resources have taken account of our culture and are commitment to looking after land.

But that said, any action that can prevent illegal dumping and help our land councils no where to go for help when they have to contend with the after effects of such dumping, will be welcomed.

It will be particularly welcomed by those communities who have run major community campaigns and obtained the help of community members to keep their land in pristine condition.

Some, of course, have been recipients of the Keep Australia Clean awards.

Land councils will be encouraged by the content of the book and DVD where it encourages land councils to enter into partnerships, meaningful partnerships, to achieve better outcomes to prevent illegal dumping and cleaning up the countryside.

In one sense, it is clearly an extension of the climate change debate that we have to look after the planet or face the consequences.

Aboriginal people the world over appreciate more than most the distinct challenges climate change poses to Indigenous peoples, their cultures and their land and resources.

It poses a threat to our very existence. 

And what is little appreciated is that part of that threat is in addressing climate change is the challenge to ensure that economic and technical resources are available to Indigenous communities to respond to the social and environmental challenges it creates.

As I said earlier, I Indigenous peoples in Australia own and manage a significant proportion of Australian land and waters and thereby play a crucial role in climate change mitigation measures.  

In 1983 when the Aboriginal Land Rights Act was first introduced into the NSW Parliament, the then Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Frank Walker noted that the law lacked an essential element of land rights legislation. 

This essential element was the protection and ownership of our cultural heritage.

Twenty five years on, the responsibility for the protection and management of our cultural heritage lies largely with your Department. 

There is no doubt that you do what you can to ensure a high level of Aboriginal involvement in the management and protection of Aboriginal objects and places. 

However, despite their best efforts Aboriginal cultural heritage continues to be destroyed.

For example, last year in the NSW Parliament, your Department estimated that since 1990 over 800 permits consenting to the destruction of our cultural heritage had been approved by the Director General.

All our efforts are needed to stem the destruction of our cultural heritage under the current regime in New South Wales. 

On a day-to-day basis NSWALC and Local Aboriginal Land Council are involved in the protection and promotion of cultural heritage in New South Wales.

This is achieved by Land Councils being involved in programs and activities concerning natural and cultural heritage such as site work and participating in cultural heritage surveys. 

Numerous Land Councils are involved in the joint management of culturally significance national park land.

Significant places like Mutawinjti National Park, Mt Grenfell Historic Site, Biamanga and Gulaga National Parks and Worimi Conservation Lands have been returned to Aboriginal ownership. 

Land councils hold title to the land on behalf of the Aboriginal owners and participate on Boards of Management responsible for the care, control and management of these lands.

So what action does NSWALC plan to take in the future?

NSWALC seeks to play an increased role in the protection and promotion of cultural heritage in New South Wales. 

It seeks to do this through advocacy, advice and information.  In our recently released new corporate plan our focus in this area will be on:

• Working towards the return of all Aboriginal sites in NSW
• Developing culturally appropriate guidelines for the identification, protection and promotion of cultural heritage
• Reducing the impact of development on our cultural heritage, and
• Assisting Local Aboriginal Land Councils to develop local culture and archival centres.

At a local level I hope to see Land Councils taking up the opportunity for funding offered by the Australian Government's Working on Country program, a program that was introduced some months ago.  

Land Councils are ideally placed to participate in this program.  Twenty-five years of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act in NSW has resulted in Land Councils being major landholders in the state. 

Some of this land has significant cultural and natural values.

Some we have received in a degraded state and is in need of the type of TLC that only traditional owners can give their country. 

All have a community of Aboriginal people wanting to work on country. 

There is no doubt one of the challenges for Government is to make sure they appreciate who has the right to speak for country.

But this is not a matter that we can allow government to resolve for us.

It is a critical issue that we must address as a community.

It is our responsibility to come together and attempt to resolve our differences so that we can move forward for the sake of our future and our children's future.

The land rights system will be pivotal in addressing this problem, but we cannot do it alone.

For too long in NSW there has been an artificial divide in government policy between the management of Aboriginal culture and heritage and the natural environment.

It is a sad irony that too often Aboriginal people are fighting for the protection of heritage sites, while forgetting about the impact of development on our use of the land and waters today.

That is not to say that the protection of heritage sites is not important - it is extremely important, but so to is our access to land, water and resources.

This is not an easy situation to address and is being made more complicated by the pro-development attitude of the NSW government, but we must continue to push government to recognise the need for access to our lands.

Hunting and gathering continues to provide a source of subsistence and nourishment for our people.

Equally important, the land and waters provide the source of our knowledge and having access is critical for the transmission of this knowledge to our younger generations.

We will continue to fight the tendency to assimilate us

 

As vital as our culture and heritage is important to us as Aboriginal people we need to remember that we are a small percentage of the population in this state and that our culture and heritage is not all that important to the mainstream.

It is for this reason that we need to improve our capacity to argue the case for better protection outcomes.

Taking into consideration the range of competing interests it is vital that we are able to advocate the broader benefits to protecting our lands, waters and heritage sites rather than have them destroyed under the guise of 'economic development'.

We cannot and should not avoid economic development, but we have to be clearer about what this term means for us and provide well reasoned caveats to ensure that such activity does not arise at the expense of our culture and heritage.

We must Build the Capacity within our Communities

Our need to build technical capacity within Aboriginal communities and organisations, particularly with respect to natural resource management is absolutely vital.

This simple fact is that science is dominating and driving the changes in policy with respect to the natural environment.

If we do not build capacity within our people soon we are going to find ourselves, as we are already seeing, on the margins of the debate and only making minor contributions and achieving token outcomes.

The establishment of various committees and working parties may satisfy government's requirements to be seen to be consulting with Aboriginal people, but if we are not fully informed we can not be significantly engaged in the debates.

The key to becoming informed is to understand the perspectives of the other stakeholders.

To do this we need to understand the technical aspects of their respective arguments.

That is not to say that everyone can be fully informed, but we need to ensure that those who make decisions and provide advice on our behalf have first consulted widely with Aboriginal people and have taken the trouble to properly represent their collective views.

But in closing, the Land Council movement of New South Wales congratulates the Department for this excellent initiative.

We stand ready to work with you on initiatives that will protect Aboriginal land and maintain that land under Aboriginal ownership and control.

Thank you.