Malcolm Turnbull acknowledges ‘hard-fought land rights battle’ as the title deeds to 55,000 hectares of land across from Darwin harbour are handed back to traditional owners

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

“This is a big day for us,” Kenbi traditional owner Jason Singh told the crowd. “At last we have waited and we get our land back.

“Thank you all for coming and welcome to our country.”

A crowd of several hundred, including Malcolm Turnbull, sat at Mandorah facing Darwin harbour, the city’s skyline in the distance. For 37 years the people of this land have looked across to the seat of power of the Northern Territory government, which for four decades fought against them and their rights to their country.

In April an agreement was finally reached. On Tuesday the title deeds to the 55,000 hectares of the Kenbi land claim, covering the Cox peninsula on the western side of Darwin harbour, were officially handed back.

At almost four decades since it was officially lodged, the Kenbi claim was one of the longest running in Australian land rights history. It has been particularly fraught, with three challenges in the federal court and two in the high court. It was awarded to just six individuals, known as the Tommy Lyons group, and a separate group of Larrakia people have maintained their claims of ownership and unhappiness at the decision.

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Long negotiations with government over the cost of cleaning up toxic waste and arms materials on the land also caused delays and tension. Many senior Larrakia died before its resolution.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull poses with traditional land owners, Indigenous affairs minister Nigel Scullion (far right) and Northern Territory chief minister Adam Giles (second from left) after a ceremony on Tuesday where the Kenbi deeds were handed back. Photograph: Stefan Postles/Getty Images

“The Kenbi land claim was a hard-fought land rights battle,” the prime minister told the gathered crowd. “But it represents so much more than just a battle over land. It is a story that epitomises the survival and resilience of our First Australians, the survival of Larrakia people. For you are the land, and the land is you.”

Turnbull said the leadership of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in working with each other and with governments was the key to ending Indigenous disadvantage and pointed to the 12 Indigenous candidates for the federal election.

“From the west coast where Ken Wyatt, the first Aboriginal member of the House of Representatives is seeking re-election; across to the east coast and to the heart of our biggest city, where a young man called Geoffrey Winters is running for the seat of Sydney,” he said.

“If six or seven of those candidates are successful, we will have parity in our parliament – that is, our First Australians will be represented in the parliament as they are in the population.”

Turnbull congratulated the traditional owners but said the handback had to also acknowledge the injustices and trauma of the past and present. “This trauma and suffering can not be denied,” he said.

“Prior to European arrival, this land, Australia, was cared for by hundreds of nations of Aboriginal people. Yours are the oldest continuing cultures on Earth. Our nation is as old as humanity itself, and Larrakia people were, and are, the Aboriginal people of the Darwin region.”

The former Aboriginal land commissioner Justice Peter Gray formally identified the traditional owners of much of the claim in 2000. But he didn’t expect it to take 16 more years to reach handover.

“Im just very glad that it’s happened,” he told Guardian Australia in Mandorah. “I’m very sad there are lot of people who have died along the way.

“I’m so thrilled to be here. I think if I compiled a list of achievements from my legal career it would be a short list but this would be up there.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Traditional owner Raelene Singh holds the deeds to the historic Kenbi land claim. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Samuel Bush Blenasi, chairman of the Northern Land Council, said the claim had “hung like a dark cloud over this land for too long”.

Joe Morrison, chief executive of the Northern Land Council, talked of his organisation’s part in the “long and sometimes torturous history” of the claim.

He was critical of past Country Liberal party governments that had taken extraordinary steps to see off the claim until a Labor government abandoned further court appeals.

The current CLP chief minister, Adam Giles, acknowledged the change in attitude on local radio earlier on Tuesday morning and said he had made it a personal goal to see the claim settled.

The high court’s 2008 Blue Mud Bay decision gave ownership of 85% of the Northern Territory coastline to traditional owners and was factored into the final settlement.

“We are nothing without our land,” said a traditional owner, Raelene Singh. “Our mother taught us about this land. I’m very sad she’s not here today. Our mother was very important in the long fight.

“It is good the prime minister has come here to give us back our land. He’s a very busy man and I thank him for coming here today.”

Raelene’s sister Zoe said it had been a “long hard struggle” for her family and other claimants. “Now we just want to get on with our normal lives.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A young Aboriginal dancer plays in the sand at Mandorah in the Northern Territory on Tuesday at a ceremony to hand back Kenbi land to its traditional owners. Photograph: Lukas Coch/EPA

Warren Snowdon, the Labor MP for Lingiari, which includes the Cox peninsula, passed on the opposition leader Bill Shorten’s “best wishes and apologies for not being here”.

Snowdon thanked Turnbull for the bipartisanship of his speech. “But it hasnt always been that way,” he said, accusing former CLP governments of trying to “strangle at birth” the Kenbi land claim.

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“The 70s and 80s were not comfortable if you were an Aborignal person involved in land claim process,” he said. “You were demonised, pilloried and harassed. You were attacked by chief ministers. That was a sorry part of our history and I hope we never repeat it.”

Snowdon said the ceremony recognised only what has always been Aboriginal land. He told the Tommy Lyons group they had a responsibility as traditional owners, and noted the division surrounding the claim.

The title deed included a large area of freehold, and Scullion urged the traditional owners to consider the opportunities now before them.

“The opportunity to continue your connection to country and maintain your land,” Scullion said. “The opportunities for all Larrakia to benefit from the development potential of the region and take up all the employment opportunities that will come your way.”

Following the speeches, the deeds, wrapped in specially prepared paperbark, were handed to three of the traditional owners by Turnbull.

A performance by the Kenbi Dancers followed, but the event was interrupted by Eric Fejo, a Larrakia man who has also claimed traditional ownership of the land, without success.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Larrakia man Eric Fejo (centre) throws up a piece of white paper, symbolising the government’s federal plan for the northern region, during a ceremony to hand back Kenbi land to its traditional owners on Tuesday. Photograph: Lukas Coch/EPA

Before he took part in a ceremonial dance with other Larrakia and West Arnhem men, Fejo took the mic to protest against the federal and NT governments.



“Prime minister, what deals are you doing with multinationals in regards to environmental issues?” he said. He then tore up a piece of white paper, symbolising the government’s federal plan for the northern region.

He singled out chief minister, Adam Giles. “Where’s Adam?”



Giles raised his hand.



“You got no right to tell our countrymen to piss off, you got no right,” said Fejo, referring to comments Giles made in March about itinerant people in Darwin.

“Our country is here, Larrakia country.”



He finished uninterrupted.

“You can take your white paper and your developing the north. But at what cost?”

Tuesday’s event was the fourth land handback ceremony this month, totally more than 200,000 hectares. More than 40% of the Northern Territory, including 85% of its coastline, now officially belongs to its traditional owners.

Helen Davidson (@heldavidson) First clip of senior Larrakia man Eric Fejo staging a protest at the #kenbi land handback today pic.twitter.com/wCLKqsDTl3