1,000,000 Hectares Handed Over: When Does It Stop?

We’re told Australia is one of the most egalitarian modern democracies in the world, where fairness and justness rule supreme. I mean, the word is right there in our national anthem: Advance Australia Fair. The fundamental rule of a fair nation is that public land belongs to, well, the public. Australian land belongs to all of us and certainly would never be divvied out based on someone’s ethnic or racial background. I mean, that sounds like the premise of a grim dystopian novel. A system where public land is stripped from the collective and quietly signed over to a select group based entirely on their bloodline. You can still look at the scenery, but the rules are set by an elite lineage. But alas, in modern, “progressive” Australia, ethnicity is exactly how we allocate land. It’s divisive, it’s unjust, and it flies right in the face of being “fair.” Yet somehow, we’ve let it happen. In 1770, Captain James Cook was sailing the Endeavour through the treacherous, uncharted waters off Cape York when the ship struck a shallow coral outcrop on the Great Barrier Reef. Heavily damaged and taking on water, Cook managed to limp the crippled vessel into the mouth of a nearby river, promptly named the Endeavour River by his crew. The crew beached the ship for nearly seven weeks to patch the hull, replace damaged planks, and forge new iron bolts from scratch. This forced delay resulted in the first sustained direct contact between British explorers and the local Aboriginal people. It was a historic encounter where language was actively exchanged, giving the world its very first written record of the word “kangaroo.” Fast forward 256 years, and the headlines tell a very different story—thank you to the viewers who sent these in. SBS announced: “Land where Captain Cook first made contact has been handed back to Traditional Owners.” The National Indigenous Times went further, proudly declaring: “Traditional Owners are reclaiming historic Country where Captain James Cook once beached the damaged Endeavour… More than 3,000 hectares in and around Cooktown in far north Queensland will return to the Guugu Yimithirr people.” The reports note the land will now be owned by the Bubu Nubuun Aboriginal Corporation—with about 72 hectares of it carved out as exclusive Aboriginal freehold land for economic development and Indigenous home ownership. Silly us. And here we thought “public land” meant spaces owned equally by all Australian citizens. Apparently, some citizens, based on their family tree, are just born more equal than others. Now, defenders of this move will point out a bit of fine print in the reports: though the Aboriginal Corporation technically owns the parks, the land will be “jointly managed” with the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service. Oh, well, that’s a relief. So the public still gets the privilege of funding the maintenance, upgrading the car parks, and managing the tracks—but when it comes to the actual legal title and final say over the dirt? That stays strictly dictated by one’s bloodline. According to SBS’s NITV, Bubu Nubuun Aboriginal Corporation Director Betty Woibo was very pleased with the outcome, stating: “This is a significant step towards self-determination and reconciliation, and we look forward to working in partnership with the state to care for Country. We hope to create economic opportunities for our people…” Ah, yes. That old chestnut: “reconciliation.” It sounds a lot more like segregation to me. It’s a bold new strategy for a modern democracy, but hey—at least the state gets a partnership out of it. So, 3,000 hectares of land has been handed over. And note—this isn’t the first time this has happened in the region. Just last year, NITV proudly declared: “Nearly 1 million hectares of Cape York has been handed back to Traditional Owners. Cpt James Cook landed there in 1770. More than 250 years later, it’s officially back in rightful hands.” It’s a fascinating definition of “reconciliation,” isn’t it? Apparently, the best way to heal a divided nation and bring people together is to split them up into distinct legal categories, draw lines around public maps, and hand ownership of national assets to one group while everyone else gets a partnership in funding it. One million hectares last year. Another 3,000 hectares this year. When does it stop? I think we all know the answer. It stops either when the entirety of the Australian landmass is carved up and owned by Aboriginal corporations, or when regular Australians finally stand up and say: “No. This has gone too far. Australia belongs to ALL Australians.” MUSIC Allégro by Emmit Fenn