This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The Northern Territory Government has signed a historic agreement to begin treaty talks with all four of the NT’s powerful Aboriginal land councils.



The Barunga agreement, signed on Friday, commits the NT Government and the land councils to a three-year process to consult all Territorians to “develop a process to negotiate a Northern Territory treaty”.

Should a treaty eventuate, it would be “the foundation of lasting reconciliation between the First Nations of the Territory and other citizens” from which “all Territorians should ultimately benefit,” the agreement says.

The process will be led by an independent treaty commissioner – most likely an experienced and respected Aboriginal Territorian – who will develop a process that is “inclusive, accessible and transparent to all”.

“The key objective of any treaty in the NT must be to achieve real change and substantive, long-term benefits for Aboriginal people,” the agreement says.

“A treaty needs to address structural barriers to the wellbeing of Aboriginal people in the NT and provide for economic, social and cultural benefits.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Galarrwuy Yunupingu (left) and Djambawa Marawili – the last surviving of the men who painted the Barunga statement – at the signing of the agreement. Photograph: Murray McLaughlin, Northern Land Council

The agreement sets out guiding principles, including that “Aboriginal people were the prior owners and occupiers of the land, seas and waters that are now called the NT of Australia”.



“These first nations were self-governing in accordance with their traditional laws and customs, and they never ceded sovereignty of their lands, seas and waters.”

About 200 elected members from the NT’s four big land councils have been meeting at Barunga this week to discuss the memorandum of understanding with the Territory government.

The agreement acknowledges that the treaty process must involve all Aboriginal people of the NT, including the stolen generations and others whose connections to country have been broken.

“There has been deep injustice done to the Aboriginal people of the Northern Territory,” it says, “including violent dispossession, the repression of their languages and cultures, and the forcible removal of children from their families, which have left a legacy of trauma, and loss that needs to be addressed and healed.”

Any treaty process should also aim to achieve successful co-existence between all Territorians, and begin with truth-telling: hearing about, acknowledging and understanding the consequences of the NT’s history.

There will be a two-stage process to develop a treaty framework.



Once the treaty commissioner is appointed, there will be a year of consultations to “determine the level of interest in a treaty amongst Aboriginal Territorians”.

Indigenous voice to parliament given new momentum at Barunga hearings Read more

Stage two will be the release of a public discussion paper, translated into the major Aboriginal languages of the NT, with a process for consultation and feedback. The final report will be tabled in NT parliament within 18 months of the conclusion of stage one.

This is the first time the NT government and land councils have agreed to work together in this way, and the first time in decades that the four big land councils – the Northern, Central, Anindilyakwa and Tiwi – have joined together in consensus.



The Barunga agreement says a treaty for the Territory alone is insufficient, and “a federal treaty process is a crucial next step in our journey as a nation”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Galarrwuy Yunupingu and Bob Hawke at the presentation of the Barunga Statement on 12 June 1988, a still from the film Make it Right! 1988. Photograph: Ronin Films

The treaty agreement kicked off the annual Barunga festival: three days of talks, culture, dance, sport, music and art in the tiny community on Jawoyn land, east of Katherine.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the 1988 Barunga statement, presented to the then prime minister Bob Hawke, which called for Aboriginal self-management, a national system of land rights, compensation for loss of lands, respect for Aboriginal identity, an end to discrimination and the granting of full civil, economic, social and cultural rights

Hawke said he wanted to conclude a treaty between Aboriginal and other Australians by 1990, but it never happened.

The events inspired Yothu Yindi’s global hit Treaty, which included the lyrics “words are easy, words are cheap/much cheaper than our priceless land/but promises can disappear, just like writing in the sand”.

The Labor senator Pat Dodson, in Barunga to reboot bipartisan talks on an Indigenous voice to parliament and constitutional recognition, told Guardian Australia: “I was sitting in the dust 30 years ago at Barunga, helping to craft the words that went into that statement, so I’m well aware of how long it’s taken and people before me, all the way back to the 1938 day of mourning, calling for someone to take Aboriginal affairs seriously in the federal parliament.”

“So there’s nothing new about our message,” he said.

“Truth telling is critical. Unless we understand each other, and understand how we’ve been impacted even by the best intentions of the other side, it’s pretty hard to construct a new relationship.”





Rirratjingu clan leader Galarrwuy Yunupingu and his fellow Yolngu leader of northeast Arnhem Land, Djambawa Marawili, are the last surviving of the nine senior men who painted the Barunga statement in 1988. Both were present on Friday as the treaty agreement was signed.







