Traditional Owners Negotiate a Successful Agreement

KRED Enterprises and the Jaru native title claim group have successfully negotiated an agreement with Northern Minerals, locking in substantial economic benefits for the Jaru people of the East Kimberley, should the Northern Minerals project to mine rare earth progress.

The Browns Range Project Co-existence Agreement was put before the Jaru native title claim group at a two-day meeting (10 and 11 June 2014) attended by close to 200 people at Ringer Soak.

Jaru people consent to grant a mining lease to the company in exchange for a comprehensive benefits package and ongoing participation in the operation of the mine. The package includes financial benefits, share options and support to Ringer Soak and Jaru to sustain Jaru heritage, law and culture.

Northern Minerals have also committed to implement best environmental practice at all levels of operations, to carry out a full social and cultural impact assessment in conjunction with KRED and Jaru and to prioritise employment and contracting opportunities for Jaru people that will increase over the life of the mine.

KRED’s CEO Wayne Bergmann says it’s a strong agreement and a major achievement for the Jaru people.

“Here in the Kimberley, we’re setting national benchmarks with our agreements between Traditional Owners and mining companies. We’re confident this particular agreement protects the Jaru people’s cultural heritage and environment as best it can within Australian law. If the project is progressed as planned then it has the potential to provide many positive economic and social benefits to the Jaru people and the wider community,” Mr Bergmann says.

Jaru named applicant and signatory to the agreement Bonnie Edwards, says, “I’m confident we’ve got the best agreement we could have. KRED has worked hard to represent the Jaru people and I’m hoping as the benefits flow in, this will mean a higher standard of living and more opportunities for Jaru people.”

Consistent with the cultural values and responsibilities of KRED’s membership to look after each other, the agreement also has a provision for a portion of the benefits to be contributed to KRED’s regional fund, which is used to support and enhance all its members across the Kimberley, including Jaru.

Whilst the signing of the Browns Range Project Co-existence Agreement signals an important step in the strengthening of the relationship between Jaru and Northern Minerals, the full benefits for Jaru people are dependent on Northern Minerals securing investors for the project and confirming the mine will proceed. If they’re successful in doing this over the next six months, construction of the mine will begin in 2015.

Nyikina Mangala Native Title – is it enough?

“In our traditional economy we created opportunities, we shared gifts and we looked after each other. Now that we participate in a western wage economy, we need to do this again. The challenge is finding a balance. The responsibility rests on us to make this work.”

This was the muscle behind Wayne Bergmann’s first speech as Chairperson of the Nyikina Mangala Prescribed Body Corporate (PBC).

Bergmann delivered the speech as part of the Nyikina Mangala Native Title Consent Determination at Lanji Lanji last week.

But now the dust at Lanji Lanji has settled, his reflections are more somber.

“We can’t rely on native title law to protect the things that are important to us. It’s not strong enough, so we have to continue to assert our rights to ensure our interests are protected.”

Nonetheless, it was a momentous occasion.

The respected John Watson opened the ceremony by calling everyone to Lanji Lanji with a Boogardi Garda (Dreamtime) story. The story was about the creation of the country, the Fitzroy River, and the people who walked the country before the creation of the river.

Usually the story is sung over a couple of days but Mr Watson cut it short to fit with the program.

Hundreds of people then gathered under tents and the shade of the majala trees to listen as Attorney-General Michael Mischin, and Federal Court officials including Justice Gilmour, handed native title rights to the Nyikina Mangala people.

Nyikina Mangala country covers over 26,000sq kilometers of land and the native title determination means that there’s now one million square kilometers of recognised native title in Western Australia.

According to Robert Watson, a Traditional Owner who also runs Nyikina Mangala cultural awareness packages for KRED, it’s about time.

“Twenty-one years ago I stood in Canberra pushing for native title legislation to be passed. For years, we’ve seen other people receive native title on their respective countries—now it’s our turn. Today is a part of our history, much of which is untold, unsaid, unheard and unacknowledged.”

The path ahead, however, looks to be equally as challenging, particularly given the mining interests in the Canning Basin, much of which is on Nyikina Mangala country.

While native title law alone is not strong enough to protect our interests, KRED is currently working as best we can to protect our members’ cultural values, intellectual property and fundamental rights as traditional owners in the Kimberley.

We negotiate with companies on behalf of our members, eight native title claim groups from across the Kimberley, and give our members the best possible information so they can make informed decisions about what happens on their country.

KRED drives Aboriginal Pastoral Co-op

John Watson recalls his mum starting work on Mt Anderson station at three in the morning. She would set the bread and put it away in the oven, was skilled at fixing fences and mustering sheep. The women mustered the sheep on foot, with dogs, as the station only had a couple of horses.

They worked if they were sick, worked if they were starving, worked without days off. From Bohemia Downs to Billiluna, Mt Anderson to Mt Pierre, Aboriginal people, our old people, were the backbone of the pastoral industry in the Kimberley.

Since John’s mum was a young woman, a lot has changed, with many of the pastoral leases in the Kimberley now owned by Aboriginal people. However, in recent years, it’s also become apparent that some stations are underperforming.

With the June 2015 deadline looming in relation to Aboriginal pastoral leases, KRED has been approached by a number of pastoral workers and stations concerned about their ability to reinvigorate their pastoral leases. In response, KRED has developed a vision to revive the pastoral industry in the North West.

KRED proposes a group of pastoral stations stand together as a pastoral consortium. By joining forces in a commercial consortium, by sticking together and looking out for each other like our old people did in the station days, we will provide genuine employment and training opportunities for local communities and Aboriginal people. We will develop a year-round supply chain and implement world class breeding, herd management and feed crop technology.

We envisage a future where our people are the backbone of the Kimberley pastoral industry once again–where local communities and Aboriginal people can access employment and training opportunities ranging from stationhands and cooks, to subcontractors and managers. We envisage a future where our stations supply the highest quality beef to domestic and international markets and where we implement innovative and environmentally sustainable land management practices to maximise productivity and to protect the health of country.

‘China backing pastoral vision’

The following article was written by Paige Taylor and was reported in The Australian newspaper today on the 26/05/2014. 
See: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/china-backing-pastoral-vision/story-e6frg8zx-1226931107552

Bohemia Downs station manager Alan Lawford. Picture Colin Murty. Source: NewsCorp Australia. 

TEN of Australia’s biggest Aboriginal-run pastoral stations are preparing for a Chinese-backed merger that aims to reverse their economic fortunes using world-class breeding, management and feed-crop technology.

The Aboriginal Pastoral Co-op will begin as a commercial consortium of five cattle stations in the Kimberley that have struggled in isolation to achieve good prices.

Though debt-free, the stations in the first phase of the proposed co-op have never turned big ­profits and are too small on their own to leverage good economies of scale or manage supply chain costs.

Elders in the region are disappointed the stations many of them grew up on do not have the ability to employ larger numbers of young Aboriginal people.

The consortium could have up to $40 million of Chinese investment through investment house ASF Group. The firm’s director, Geoff Baker, said the ASF Group had access to finance in mainland China, Hong Kong and other parts of Asia that could help the co-op get the most from its cattle stations.

“The Chinese believe Australia is awash with resources, agricultural products and cattle — it doesn’t take much convincing of those opportunities,” he said.

He said the ASF Group had a healthy relationship with traditional owners, many of whom have Native Title over land in the region as well as strong connections to pastoral stations.

“We want to have a good relationship with traditional owners,” Mr Baker said.

ASF Group saw “enormous potential” in the co-op concept, not least because the Kimberley was a lot closer to Asia than states such as Victoria and NSW.

ASF Group, which is already active in the Kimberley with exploration projects, is in talks with the Aboriginal Charitable Trust putting the consortium together, KRED Enterprises.

Under the long-term plan, ASF Group’s investment could help create infrastructure and irrigation systems to support 16,000 head of cattle in a Kimberley corridor. Ultimately mustering costs would be reduced by 25 per cent, according to a co-op concept plan.

The consortium would market its own brand of organic Kimberley rangeland beef for export to China. The concept for the consortium has the support of Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce.

The Abbott government has honoured a commitment by the Rudd government to contribute $400,000 towards the setting up of the consortium in the form of a grant to KRED.

Bohemia Station manager Alan “Doodie” Lawford said he wanted to help reinvigorate the industry because that would mean more jobs on the land for young Aborigines.

“Our young people want to be out here,” he said.

Indigenous Business Australia is preparing the business and marketing plans for the co-op.

So far, 10 cattle stations have asked to join. If the consortium ­begins well, more members would be welcome, including cattle ­stations in other regions and states, and those owned by non-Aboriginal interests.

KRED chief executive Wayne Bergmann said Aboriginal-run pastoral stations had suffered the same setbacks over the years as the ones felt industry-wide, ­including the crippling effects of Labor’s live export suspension.

Costs have spiralled, but the price per head has been virtually unchanged for 18 years.

Mr Bergmann said he believed there were extraordinary opportunities for a co-op with strong management. The consortium was dreaming big.

“I see it like the early days of Wesfarmers, where farmers got together collectively and had a management team to deal with challenges nationally,” he said.

The above article was written by Paige Taylor and was reported in The Australian newspaper today on the 26/05/2014. 
See: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/china-backing-pastoral-vision/story-e6frg8zx-1226931107552

Give it all you got!

From the moment they hit the stage, guitars straps slung over shoulders, twelve year-old Adi and fifteen year-old Jada communicate without words. It’s incredible to watch—this subtle movement of hands and eyes, a chord here, a note there.

“We give each other secret signals, play a little bit and then we know where to start,” Jada says.

The Broome-based sisters have their own band ‘Jadadi’ and with the support of an Ambooriny Burru Nipper Tabagee Scholarship they were able to travel to the Tamworth Country Music Festival earlier this year.

In Tamworth they played back-to-back gigs, brushing shoulders and even breakfasting with country music heavyweights like Troy Cassar-Daley and Casey Chambers.

Pumped up on energy drinks, they played on stages and busked on the street. “When we were busking, a lot of people gathered around and afterwards, the crowd took photos with us and we got to sign autographs,” Jada says.

The stack of cds they took to the festival sold out within days.

“We were supposed to save some for our family back here, but people kept buying them!” Jada says.

It’s easy to understand why. The girls complement each other, blending seamless harmonies as they sing about fishing, about love, about home.

“Sometimes we do get nervous before we start playing,” Adi admits, “but we’re grateful to have had the opportunity to go to Tamworth and build our confidence.”

Jada agrees, saying the Nipper Tabagee Scholarship really gave the girls the lift they needed.

“It made it possible for us to play at the festival and to give us exposure at this national level.”

The Nipper Tabagee Scholarship is designed to help end the disparity in employment outcomes between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.

By encouraging our young people to pursue and achieve their goals in the short-term, we’re also securing their long-term economic and social engagement.

We believe supporting the aspirations of our people will prove to be one of our greatest investments.

When asked what advice they’d give other aspiring musicians Jadadi says, “Give it all you got! Make yourself heard. Because there’s people out there that can help you.”

For more information on the Nipper Tabagee Scholarship contact KRED Enterprises on 91 92 8782.