Native Title Financial Compensation Awarded
Thursday 3 October 2013 @ 9.16 a.m. | Legal Research
The first native title financial compensation determination has been handed down in South Australia.
Earlier this week, a special hearing of the Federal Court was held with the traditional owners at De Rose Hill Station, south of the Northern Territory border. The hearing was held in a tent set up near a rocky waterhole and dozens of people attended.
De Rose Hill native title was recognised in 2005 for an area adjacent to the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Aboriginal lands after a lengthy trial and appeal process which resulted in a victory for their native title rights.
In 2011 the De Rose Hill native title holders, the Yankunytjatjara people, claimed compensation from the SA Government because their native title rights had been extinguished in some areas, with an impact on their sacred sites. This resulted in a confidential financial agreement that has been finalised.
Mediation between the state and the title holders reached an agreement without the need for a trial.
The Indigenous group's lawyer, Michael Pagsanjan, said the compensation related to loss of land and damage to sacred sites before native title was granted.
"There's a number of levels that the rights and interests can be damaged. It can be damaged on a practical level where an act might affect a physical site, it might have gone over a grave site or a site which was previously prevalent for the gathering of bush tucker or it might be spiritual...This [compensation] is significant to my clients who are required to do a lot to manage their native title rights and interests without any financial capacity whatsoever and this perhaps is one step in the right direction towards self-sufficiency."
The compensation is to be paid to the Ilpalka Aboriginal Corporation which manages native title rights and other matters for De Rose Hill.
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