After more than a hundred years of agitation, land rights were accorded to Aboriginal groups in the Northern Territory in 1976 under federal legislation. Since then, other states have legislated to vest title over various pieces of state-owned land to their traditional Aboriginal owners. All the mainland states and territories have now made provisions for Aboriginal land rights. Various representative bodies were set up by successive federal governments throughout the 1970s and 1980s, culminating in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Commission (ATSIC), established in 1990. This statutory authority gives elected Aboriginal representatives effective control over many of the federal funding programmes directed at Aboriginal organizations and communities. Since the late 1980s, substantial funds have been directed towards training for employment.
Co-operative agreements with the Australian Nature Conservation Agency have led to Aboriginal ownership and joint management of two of Australia’s most important conservation reserves, Uluru–Kata Tjuta and Kakadu national parks in the Northern Territory. These arrangements recognize that Aboriginal owners retain an enormous understanding about the ecology of their traditional lands that can be of great assistance in the development of land-management plans. The Uluru Fauna Survey, a joint scientific survey between Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara landowners and the scientific research authority, CSIRO, represents a landmark in the application of indigenous knowledge to solving conservation problems. In the wake of the Mabo Decision, other state and territory governments are looking at the Uluru model of co-operative park management as a way of accommodating Aboriginal land interests, while providing for more effective conservation strategies.
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