Selina and Robert Eggington and Nyoongah Elder John Pell inside Dumbartung’s Kyana Gallery. (Photo: Koori Mail)

Noongar Elder John Pell, a working party representative for the Busselton to Margaret River Noongar people to the South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council (SWALSC) in their deliberations over the State’s $1.3 billion Native Title proposal said he believes most Noongars have lost faith in the negotiation process and that the SWALSC had failed to legitimately consult with the Noongar people.

The Noongar nation represents several clans and numbers more than 40,000 Noongars, more than any other First Nations People, and has a geographical area that covers the south west of Western Australia and includes Perth. Noongars are one in every two First Nations people in Western Australia. Western Australia, despite the wealthiest jurisdiction, has the nation’s highest statistics for Aboriginal ill-health, homelessness, incarceration rates and suicides.

According to Mr Pell, the majority of Noongars have lost faith in the consultation process between the SWALSC and the people. “Between 75 to 80 per cent of Noongars are no longer interested in the Native Title proposal by the State Government.”

“They have not been consulted and most of the community meetings organised by the SWALSC have been very poorly attended. The majority of the people do not even know these meetings are on,” said Mr Pell.

On the premise that the deal will settle Native Title once and for all and in effect extinguish various claim rights and diminish the prospect of future litigation by Native Title claimants, the State Government is offering a combined package of $1.3 billion to the Noongar people through the SWALSC which will be required to set up an overseer authority that will liaise with Government and 6 regional councils. The package has been lauded as the largest Native Title deal. But when one considers that the package hypothetically must presumably meet the needs and aspirations of 40,000 Noongars then on a per capita basis it is a comparably small offer. The Noongars are the largest First Nations population, twenty to thirty times the population size of most First Nations populations. On a head of population basis the Native Title offer is at the bottom end of the spectrum.

Only $600 million of the $1.3 billion package is a cash component, the rest are ‘valuations’ of combined ‘land deals’ of pretty much bush and forest where the Department of Conservation and Forestry and the regional councils will be able to ‘administer’ cultural authority and enter into agreement for employment opportunities for Noongars as park rangers and conservationists and where possible pitch tourism angles. The $600 million cash component will be meted out at $50 million per annum for 12 years with the expectation the Noongar councils and overseer body will draw on the interest from the invested millions for economic and social projects.

Mr Pell said this is not much of a deal for Noongar people.

Mr Pell said his eyes opened to the inability of the SWALSC to represent the Noongar people when recently they failed to represent the Bardimia community group in Busselton, and as a result the site has been lost from Noongar control. He said it had been a place of connection for local Noongars.

“How are SWALSC going to represent 40,000 Noongars when they cannot represent Bardimia?”

“Bardimia, two-and-a-half acres, was in the hands of the Noongar community for 19 years after many decades of being controlled by the former Federal Native Mission Board.”

“The local Shire has made managing Bardimia unaffordable and untenable.”

Mr Pell said the land is on Noongar Country and “should not finish up with non-Aboriginal owners.”

“I am disappointed in that the peak representative of our people, the SWALSC, did not assist us.”

“I have got to say how can we be expected to believe all the propaganda of the SWALSC and the Government’s (proposed) deal that’s happening when (SWALSC) can’t even look after the interests of an organisation like the Bardimia facility. In effect we’ve lost that forever,” said Mr Pell.

The SWALSC is theoretically the peak representative Noongar body and has a membership of 4,000 but the Native Title deal proposal and the SWALSC’s push for it to be accepted, having worked on it for three years, has divided the Noongar people.

If the deal goes through it will mean an end to SWALSC assisting Native Title claimants with litigation.

Many Noongar advocates, among them Marianne Mackay and Professor Len Collard, are calling for a Western Australian Electoral Commission coordinated postal ballot to decide whether Noongars should accept the Native Title deal. They have said this is the best shot at ensuring the fairest outcome.

Mr Pell said that otherwise each regional community will be expected to conduct voting on Country and with those only who attend. He said this is too much to ask of the many elderly, ailing and impoverished who will not be able to attend.