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Issue no. 48 / October 2022
2022 INDIGENOUS GOVERNANCE AWARDS
Some members of Brewarrina Women’s Business group: L-R Tracy Gordon, Charlotte Boney, Narelle Renalds, Belinda Boney, Courtney Boney, Denise Renalds, Urayne Warraweena and Natalie Boney. Photo: John Reidy
GOING FORWARD: BREWARRINA LOCAL ABORIGINAL LAND COUNCIL Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have consistently fought for ‘land back’: the return of lands and waterways stolen during the invasion of this continent. This has been an unbreakable demand reiterated across generations. In response to these demands in 1984 the NSW Government passed land rights legislation. The Aboriginal Land Rights Act NSW saw the establishment of a statutory body, the NSW Aboriginal Land Council and a network of 120 local Aboriginal land councils (LALCs) across the state. One of these was in the western NSW town of Brewarrina. A year after the NSW legislation was passed the Brewarrina Local Aboriginal Land Council’s (BLALC) inaugural Chairperson, Ernie Gordon Snr, lodged a claim for about 8,000 acres in 1984. That claim, Land Claim 1043, is now the longest unresolved claim in the state.
This lack of progress has not daunted the BLALC (Winner, Category 2 – Outstanding examples of governance in Indigenous-led small to medium incorporated organisations), and it has continued to make significant progress in providing a voice for its community and acquiring land for cultural, economic and social benefits. Receiving a meagre annual funding of $150,145 under the Act, the work of local land councils is always difficult, and seven years ago the BLALC was under the control of an appointed administrator. Today, an Aboriginal community board once again drives the organisation’s priorities and policies under a community-first approach, and it now has six full-time staff members.