YANNER HIGH COURT DECISION AND RECONCILIATION

Professor Helene Marsh, School of Tropical Environment Studies and Geography, James Cook University, writes on the recent High Court decision in the Murandoo Yanner case in which the High Court found in favour of traditional hunting rights for Aboriginal people.

Reconciliation between Indigenous peoples and the wider community in Australia requires at least two key issues to be addressed.

One is the importance of land and sea and associated resources to Indigenous Australians. The other is the need to improve relationships between Indigenous Australians and the wider community.

The High Court decision on the Yanner Case contributed to the former. The strong response in the Australian media to the perceived increase in hunting rights by Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders suggests that the decision had a negative impact on the latter.

One of my PhD students, Fernando Ponte, surveyed 600 people in north Queensland and Brisbane about Indigenous hunting in national parks. They overwhelmingly opposed traditional hunting rights because they considered that:

About 25 per cent of respondents were also concerned that Indigenous hunting would lead to extinction of target species.

These results highlight the necessity of educating the wider community about:

My 25 years' experience of working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in northern Queensland convinces me that traditional owners are concerned about the sustainability of hunting in their land and sea.

They are also concerned about the impacts on their country of the activities of the wider community, such as problems caused by unsustainable land and water use and other habitat loss, and the mortality of threatened species such as dugongs and turtles in commercial fishing operations.

Traditional owners are keen to negotiate community-based management arrangements with relevant government agencies, as evidenced by the Turtle and Dugong Hunting Management Plan recently developed by Hope Vale community near Cooktown. This plan, which will be administered by a community committee, proposes restrictions on how many dugongs and turtles can be hunted each year and when and where they can be hunted.

At present there are more than 200 TAFE-trained community rangers living in Cape York. The few Indigenous people who are employed are engaged in 'work for the dole' schemes and have limited access to basic infrastructure such as boats and vehicles. At present, most communities do not have the capacity to administer community-based arrangements for management of land and sea, even if these are developed.

An appropriate government response to the High Court decision would be a long-term commitment to the training, career structure and resourcing of Indigenous community rangers, so that they can participate effectively in natural and cultural resource management and research.

Commonwealth initiatives to date have been short-term and have generally not led to any commitment to a community ranger program from the state agencies that are responsible for day-to-day management of the environment. A long-term commitment to Indigenous community rangers would have significant social as well as conservation benefits in communities with limited employment opportunities.

This initiative should also be accompanied by an educational campaign to educate the wider Australian community to counter their prejudices concerning Indigenous hunting and lower their anxiety about its sustainability.