Indigenous land return 'ends shame'

(AAP) - Queensland will return thousands of hectares of national park on Cape York Peninsula to its indigenous owners.

Premier Anna Bligh on Wednesday told parliament more than 75,000 hectares of
national park, known as Archer Bend, would be revoked and returned to the Wik
Mungkan people.
The move comes more than 30 years after it was taken from traditional owners by the
National Party government of the day.
Ms Bligh said that in November 1977, the Bjelke-Petersen government declared land
outside Coen as national park, robbing the Wik Mungkan people of the chance to buy
their homeland.
"The Wik Mungkan people battled the National Party government for years over the
lease," Ms Bligh said.
"John (Koowarta) was a Wik stockman. He saved his money towards a dream that one day
he would be able to buy back Archer River, the land of his birth.
"The land had been leased from the Queensland government by an absentee American
investor who, when contacted in 1974 by John Koowarta, agreed to sell him the lease
at market rates."
But, she said, then premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen thwarted that right by going through
"a back door" to declare the land national park.
"This decision (to return the land) puts an end to a shameful chapter in
Queensland's indigenous history," she said.
"It changes the outcome of a long legal battle which saw the legitimate legal rights
of indigenous people of Cape York circumvented."
Opposition Leader John-Paul Langbroek told Brisbane reporters that the Bligh
government was happy to criticise a previous premier on indigenous rights despite
showing little regard for traditional owners with its wild rivers legislation.
"I think it's interesting that the premier wants to talk about 1977 but does not
want to talk about 2010 where the rights of many more indigenous people have been
taken away by the wild rivers legislation," Mr Langbroek said.
The Wild Rivers Act was introduced by the Queensland state Labor government in 2005
to protect the health of 10 Cape York river systems by placing limits on
development.
Some indigenous leaders, including Noel Pearson, and federal Opposition Leader Tony
Abbott have called for the laws to be overturned, arguing that they deny Aboriginal
people economic opportunities.
Queensland Sustainability Minister Kate Jones said Wednesday's decision returns
parts of the national park as freehold land, allowing traditional owners to manage
cultural and natural values, and establish businesses.
The Wilderness Society supported the decision.
"We offer our congratulations to the Ayapathu, Kaanju, Wik Mungkan traditional
owners who negotiated with the government to achieve this historic land rights
outcome," the society's national campaigner Anthony Esposito said.