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We bring to the attention of readers the use of images and mention of some deceased Indigenous persons.

The State Government has finally named the Wulgurukaba clan the Traditional Owners of Magnetic Island.

The Wulgurukaba people are to be awarded two conservation parks, one in Bolger Bay, the other at the western end of Horseshoe Bay fronting on to the beach.

In addition, there will be a hand over of what is known as “Indigenous Freehold Title” with strict conditions for 1.66ha of land at Lot 7 Apjohn Street, 7.47ha of land at West Point known as Sticklease, and a portion of vacant land in Kelly Street up past the cement works.

However, secrecy still surrounds the conditions of the Indigenous Land Use Agreement signed off on by the Wulgurukaba on Friday, November 4, 2011 because all parties are subject to confidentiality provisions.

Mary Vernon, of Ned Lee’s Creek near Picnic Bay, one of the parties to the claim process, says the rapid move to place all Unallocated State Land into national park since the ILUA will make land management difficult on MI.

She said: “There are all sorts or rules about what you can do attached to national park ...what you can plant in the garden …domestic pets. (Nearly) every house (on Magnetic Island) now adjoins national park.”

The Wulgurukaba began its Native Title claim process in 1998.

Mary says of this time: “The claim process started out with good will but at the last meeting (held in 2008) the (government) solicitor announced what they were going to do. Lots of people had contributions to make, not necessarily to the detriment of Wulgurukaba.

“Everyone was hung out to dry. All confidence in the process is gone.

“I wrote to the State Attorney-General that constitutional rights were being ignored in the interests of tidying things up in a way the State Government found convenient but I did not get a reply.”

In essence the ILUA represents what the State Government bullied all parties into, instead of properly funding the Wulgurukaba people to get the evidence they needed to prove their claim, according to MI Residents and Ratepayers Association president Cameron Turnbull.

MIRRA, one of a number of parties to the claim process, was shutdown and bullied as were the Wulgurukaba and other parties to the claim, such as Mary and Rick Vernon, according to Cameron.

Mary described the outcome as “shocking” for the Wulgurukaba people who have signed an agreement that makes them “responsible for compensating any claimants who might possibly turn up in the future”.

The Wulgurukaba people declined to comment.

Cameron said: “The Queensland Government said they acted for the people of Queensland..

“The claim was not properly funded. The Wulgurukaba were sitting ducks to be picked off by the (State) government.

“Land councils in themselves were not perfect arbiters or distributors of the funds.

“The Wulgurukaba were screaming out for funds (to prove their claim).

“The process was exclusive of all parties, including the Wulgurukaba, because the Queensland Government decided Wulgurukaba could not achieve connection and in order to make sure that there was a recognition of Traditional Owners, in respect of various areas, the Queensland Government decided to make what was basically commercial decisions.

“Claimants were told ‘if you continue to argue you’ll get nothing…this is what we’re offering you, take it or leave it’.

“In exchange, Wulgurukaba gave up Native Title claim and were recognised as the Traditional Owners of Magnetic Island.

“This carries some benefits under mainly cultural Acts in Queensland but is no real recognition in relation to ownership.

“One anthropological study was done but not disclosed to anyone other than Wulgurukaba and the Queensland Government.

“MIRRA is not anti-Wulgurukaba, just anti the process.

“What’s history going to make of this carve up of the State?”

The indigenous people might well ask the same question of the original carve up of Australia (see accompanying local story).

The Wulgurukaba or canoe people, are now going down in history as the Traditional Owners of MI, despite objections of people such as Cameron Turnbull about the flawed process that got them there.

Perhaps instead of being angry about the ILUA being awarded to the Wulgurukaba people, we can remember that the original carve up of Magnetic Island land took place in an era of terra nullius, meaning it was believed and practiced in law that no people owned the land.

The process of native title claim since the June 3, 1992 Mabo Decision in the High Court overturned terra nullius has come about in the climate of the Native Title Act 1993, part of the Commonwealth Government’s response to that historic High Court decision.

However, the native title process around Australia has torn families and communities apart with promised transparency failing to materialise.

It is in this climate of secrecy that fears have flourished and become magnified by a gullible media, with only those clever enough to see through this in turn then throwing light on the lack of transparency being at the crux of the problem, in relation to the claim process.

Emotions have boiled over into lateral family violence in Indigenous family and clan groups around Australia, as people have grappled with fitting traditional processes of decision-making into modern corporate structures.

I would be surprised if anyone involved in the claim process, especially the Wulgurukaba, could claim to be unchanged by the process.

In the broader Australian community, anger over the claim process boiled over with extreme right-wing groups blamed for the desecration in 1995 of Eddie (Koiki) Mabo's tombstone in Townsville, just hours after its unveiling, with his remains subsequently re-interred on Mer Island.

The act of vandalism, which horrified the nation, was described at the time as one of terrorism against Mabo’s widow Bonita.

With not one but two skeletal remains to be repatriated to Magnetic Island at some time in the future, Wulgurukaba people as T.O.’s are likely to claim this process of repatriation but might well be nervous of the reaction from the MI community.

(There was an ancestor’s virtually complete set of skeletal remains retrieved from the Nelly Bay Harbour during construction and another of an ancestor whose 150-year-old skeletal remains were retrieved in December, 2011 from an undisclosed location on the west side of the island.)

Next after Mabo’s grave desecration came the Wik decision, with the High Court ruling on December 23, 1996 that native title rights could co-exist with statutory pastoral leases depending on the terms and nature of the particular pastoral lease.

“Where there was a conflict of rights, the rights under pastoral lease would extinguish the remaining native title rights,” explains Wikipedia.

“The decision provoked a significant debate in Australian politics. It led to intense discussions on the validity of land holdings in Australia. Some political leaders criticised the court for being out of touch and for introducing uncertainty into Australian life. The Howard Government formulated a ‘10 point plan’ to bring certainty to land ownership in Australia. This plan led to the longest debate in the Australian Senate’s history.”

Today, with both the Mabo and Wik decisions in place, it is time to acknowledge that the ILUA is also in place and ILUA land is to be handed over this year.

If we consider that unallocated state land – tucked up as National Park with indecent haste after the ILUA process – might have been included in the claim process, perhaps the ILUA might be seen by even the most ardent of opponents as a small price to pay for MI as we know it today, despite the process of arriving at it.

Perhaps we can all draw a line in the sand and move on since there’s no turning back. Those battling the claim and those spurring it on have fought and lost, all of them bullied into silence by a State Government dictating the terms of agreement such that, in the end, the State Government was the only winner…with the winner writing the history about who comprises the state’s Traditional Owners.

Cameron Turnbull says that, by failing to fund the process in a way the claim could finally be tested in a court of law, the State Government has “acted like God”.

Yet it sees itself as a winner because it has dodged this process.

Its omnipotent approach to government is lazy government and in the end it fails everyone, especially the Wulgurukaba, who would have been better served moving into their new era of tenureship and stewardship with a clear-cut court win.

The Community News sent these questions to Mandy Johnstones office, who has sent them on to DERM. At the time of going to print we had not received any response from the Minister.

1. Does the State Government consider it adequately funded the process for Wulgurukaba to make its claim on Magnetic Island?

2. Has the State Government failed the people of Queensland by not enabling this process of claim to be tried in a court of law?

3. What ramifications will the people of Magnetic Island face in the wake of the decision to move Unallocated State Land into National Park in terms of adjoining landowners and the community in general's practices of having ornamental gardens, chooks, and domestic pets?

4. Has the State Government moved USL into NP in the wake of the ILUA with Wulgurukaba to prevent future claimants moving on claiming this land?

 

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