1 October, 2007

Alan Padgett
The Manager
Indigenous Land Corporation

Today, the First of October 2007, I inspected the Pyrton Land, drove right through the whole of the area, and took notice of all the area where the buildings were, and they are all gone.

To me as a Traditional Elder who holds Native Title in the area with my Family Clan and other Family Clans of the Swan River and Swan Coastal Plains, I see the Land now, from my point of view it is red ripe for the white man’s high living buildings of houses and flats.

I say that this was in the pipeline a long time ago with the Government, and especially Martin Whitely is pushing the development on to the place over and above us the Indigenous Inhabitants, the People of the Area. (Note that housing was proposed in 1998, and we are the people who succeeded with the WA Planning Commission in putting a stop to that housing plan because of our Sacredness and Culture and Heritage in the Land. We are the People who stopped the Prison being built on Pyrton because of our Sacredness and Culture. We had the support of the local People and Bassendean Council and Clive Brown who was the then local Member of Parliament. It was then that the ILC first began to be interested in our ideas, and funded the Land Use Structure Plan based on our plans.

We have grown up in the area when it was all bushland, and our People before us from generation to generation and we stood at Lockridge.

On the last time you met us, with Martin Whitely and a few others and there was no friendliness or respect in Martin’s attitude, and I would say that you weren’t understanding us properly for what we the Traditional Owners were trying to explain to you on behalf of our Family Clans and the concerns on behalf of the whole of the Nyungah people.

The Indigenous Land Corporation is a Government body which is supposed to represent us the Aboriginal People as a whole.

I would say in this case you are ignoring us to some extent when we want to talk about the Pyrton Land and we want it for the use of the Nyungah People of the Swan River and Swan Coastal Plains, and the south-west and north and east as a whole.

We are asking for our Land back so we can build and set up the Nyungah Cultural University and show State and Federal Governments our capabilities of what we can do. We are entitled to plan our destiny ( see the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People finally passed by the General Assembly of the United Nations after over 20 years, that Nyungah ElderClarrie Isaacs RIP was part of, on 13 September 2007). The Indigenous Land Corporation is just a false front if you don’t help us and people like us with our Land.

It is our Blackfella values, our Ties and our Sense of Belonging and our Suffering for standing up and being knocked down time and again, and refused help by State and Federal Governments, and people like Martin Whitely and the hidden agenda of what he is pushing for the State Government, with political players behind the scene planning and plotting how to build on and destroy our Sacredness and Culture in the Pyrton Land.


We call on you again to meet with us in all fairness and give us the opportunity and the chance to speak to you properly.

Martin Whitely is directing the State Government away from us and not towards us and it is our Sacred Grounds. It is where we gave evidence to Justice Wilcox which won recognition of our Native Title by the the Federal Court .

We call on you, will you try to entice Martin Whitely to support us and not act against us?

We the Sufferers and the Traditional Owners are waiting on you to give us the right answer that we are expecting to hear from you.




for
Combined Swan River and Swan Coastal Plains Nyungah Elders - Native Title Holders and Traditional Owners

cc Malcolm Turnbull. Minister for Heritage and the Environment.



We enclose a copy of the South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council letter, acknowledging our position as Elders and authorised representatives who cannot be over-ridden by non-authorised Nyungah people concerning Land and our Laws and Customs concerning any land issue in our area.

We also enclose here references to recent documentation concerning consultation with Native Title Holders:

- Aboriginal Heritage Procedures Manual s5.1, produced by Department of Housing and Works in consultation with Department for Indigenous Affairs,12 March 2002 - available on internet www.dia.wa.gov.au/Heritage.
5.  Ethnographic Research and Aboriginal Community Consultation
5.1 The Purpose and Conduct of Ethnographic Research -
“Aboriginal Consultants are selected initially through ... those individuals listed as Native Title Claimants... the existence of a native title claim is seen as sufficient to establish an Aboriginal person’s ‘right to speak’ about heritage issues”.
5..3 The Purpose and Conduct of Aboriginal Community Consultation -
“‘The Department of Indigenous Affairs and Aboriginal Cultural Material Committee may reject reports submitted without the inclusion of all parties known to have an interest. In addition, aggrieved Aboriginal people not involved in research have, in the past, injuncted against developments proceeding. Such injunctions are likely to be successful if it can be demonstrated that natural justice has been denied them. “

- Also see DIA, 2006: Aboriginal Heritage Survey Reports: Guidelines for Preparing Reports for Applications to the Aboriginal Cultural Material Committee under Section 18 of the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 www.dia.wa.gov.au/Heritage.
"DIA recommends applicants consult all relevant Aboriginal persons when conducting heritage surveys for section 18 applications.

Relevant Aboriginal persons may include people with an interest in, knowledge of, or rights to and responsibilities for, an Aboriginal site or sites within an area and with an interest in protection of
Where a registered or unregistered claim under the Native Title Act 1993 (NTA) exists over the land, consultations should include, but not be confined to, those claimants (ie Native Title Owners)."