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PILA NGURU
Welcomes you to Spinifex Country!
NATIVE TITLE
INDIGENOUS PROTECTED AREA
Describing the journey to the Anangu Tjutaku IPA is really describing the self-driven return of people to their homelands and traditional country.
Spinifex Native Title Determination Area
Spinifex People hold native title over the 5.4 million hectares (54 000 sq km) of the Spinifex Native Title Determination Area, including the right to access and take for any purpose the resources of the land and waters.
Determined in 2000, the Spinifex NTDA was the first consent native title determination in Western Australia following commencement of the Native Title Act 1993, and the largest and strongest with respect to recognition of rights and interests in land yet granted in Australia at the time.
Pilki Native Title Determination Area
Pilki People, many of whom are also Spinifex People, hold exclusive possession native title over 1.78 million hectares (17,800 sq km), including the right to access and take for any purpose the resources of the land and waters of the Pilki Native Title Determination Area. This determination created a precedent in Native Title law regarding commercial use of resources granted through Native Title, something not recognised in the Spinifex Determination. The claim was first lodged in 2002 but was not determined until late 2015.
Untiri Pulka Native Title Determination Area
Untiri Pulka People, many of whom are Spinifex and Pilki People, hold native title over 5.1 million hectares (51 462 sq km) of Country immediately South of the Spinifex and Pilki NTDA’s. The Untiri Pulka Native Title claim was lodged in September 2019 and determined in July 2020 making it one of, if not the, fastest determinations of Native Title in Western Australia, if not Australia.
Exclusive-possession Native Title to the Spinifex Native Title Area was granted in 2000 – the strongest Native Title Determination at the time and the first in Western Australia.
The Anangu Tjutaku IPA Plan is a comprehensive expansion of the Spinifex Healthy Country Plan. Development of this plan has involved Pila Nguru and Kaltupakal RNTBC Boards, older and younger generations Anangu Tjutaku IPA Plan working together to create a long-term plan for management of biodiversity, ecosystem processes, threatened species and other natural values, as well cultural values inherent in the landscape.
Relationship Between Pila Nguru & Kaltupakal
Pila Nguru Aboriginal Corporation (Pila Nguru) is one of the oldest Registered Native Title Body Corporates (RNTBC) in Western Australia, while Kaltupakal is one of the youngest. Spinifex, Untiri Pulka and Pilki Traditional Owners share close familial and customary relationships and activities of Spinifex-Pilki Land Management span both Native Title Areas. For these reasons, it was decided that the Pila Nguru General Manager would provide administrative functions to Boards of both Pila Nguru and Kaltupakal RNTBC’s. On 25th May 2020, Untiri Pulka officially nominated the Pila Nguru RNTBC as their Prescribed Body Corporate. As such, Pila Nguru holds the native title rights and interests on trust for both the Spinifex and Untiri Pulka Native Title Determinations and is the Prescribed Body Corporate for both.
A works program for implementation by Spinifex Land Management – one that is agreed upon by both Pila Nguru and Kaltupakal Boards and the Spinifex-Pilki community to achieve long-term, consistent, culturally appropriate guidance to Rangers employed through Pila Nguru’s Spinifex Land Management Program and the Anangu Tjutaku IPA.
Post-contact aspirations of Anangu tjutaku to maintain traditional and customary management regimes over their Country are not new, nor are efforts to blend traditional and western land management. Rather, they began when Anangu tjutaku began moving back to their Country in the early 1980s. Since the homeland’s movement was initiated, Anangu tjutaku have sought to maintain deep connections to traditional country – country dense with significant cultural sites and high biodiversity value. The homelands movement was the first significant phase in the evolution of the aspirations of Anangu tjutaku for management of the IPA as people moved back to their homelands from Cundeelee Mission and Coonana Station.
To Anangu tjutaku,
all country in the IPA is important.
There are lots of things about country that are valued: the animals and plants; the landscape; the water; and the connection to culture.
All these things have great cultural and spiritual importance, and Anangu tjutaku have stories about many of these things that help in understanding them and keeping them healthy.
Governance structure and organisational relationships of the Anangu Tjutaku (Spinifex, Pilki & Untiri Pulka) IPA and this IPA Plan.
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