The Central Land Council represents Aboriginal people in Central Australia and supports them to manage their land, make the most of the opportunities it offers and promote their rights. It emerged from the Aboriginal struggle for justice and land rights. In 1976 the Commonwealth’s Aboriginal Land Rights Act (ALRA) gave Aboriginal people title to most of the Aboriginal reserve lands in the Northern Territory and the opportunity to claim other land not already owned, leased or being used.
The CLC divides its area covering almost 777,000 square kilometres into nine regions roughly based on 15 different language groups. Today Aboriginal people make up a third of the NT’s population, with more than 24,000 of them living in Central Australia. Aboriginal people collectively own half of the land in the Northern Territory – more than 417,000 square kilometres in the CLC region alone.
The CLC supports them by
- advocating with them and on their behalf;
- helping them to claim back their country and manage it;
- assisting them with the economic development of their land;
- promoting community development and improving service delivery;
- consulting with landowners on employment, development, mining and other land use proposals;
- protecting Aboriginal culture and sacred sites;
- fighting for the legal recognition of Aboriginal people’s rights;
- helping to resolve land disputes, native title claims and compensation cases;
- administering permits to visit Aboriginal land.
CLC’s Community Development
Children from Nyirrpi visit Rosebud Secondary College and participate in a science class as part of the WETT program
Many programs and projects designed to help improve the wellbeing of Aboriginal people in Central Australia are failing, and gaps in many socio-economic indicators compared with mainstream Australia are increasing. But community development, which has local participation at its core, is increasingly being identified as an appropriate engagement strategy in Aboriginal development.
It involves a set of principles and processes that build self-reliance, strengthen communities and promote good governance through the participation of local people in designing and implementing their own development projects.
So far, it has been challenging, innovative and extremely successful.
The CLC has used this community development approach since 2005 to work in partnership with Aboriginal people to direct their own resources to initiatives that both maintain their Aboriginal identity, language, culture and connection to country and strengthen their capacity to participate in mainstream Australia through improving health, education and employment outcomes.
The four objectives of the CLC Community Development Program are:
- Maximise opportunities for Aboriginal engagement, ownership and control, particularly in relation to the management of resources that belong to them
- Generate service outcomes which benefit Aboriginal people and are valued by them, including social, cultural and economic outcomes
- Build an evidence base for the CLC’s community development approach and the value it has for contributing to Aboriginal capabilities
- Share lessons learned with other government and non-government agencies
Newsletter_2018_Summer-WEB or follow the link:
https://www.clc.org.au/files/pdf/Newsletter_2018_Summer-WEB.pdf
