What a novel idea! Have the government prove that Aboriginal peoples didn't own the land before it was stolen! Of course, it will never fly - it's not weighted in favour of the beneficiaries of the theft. Trudy ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ABC News Fri, 20 Aug 1999 9:50 AEST Native title proof burden too great: Aborigines Indigenous Australians say they are tired of having to prove their traditional ownership of land. It has taken five years for the Injinoo community at the tip of Cape York to prove their traditional ownership. The State Government yesterday handed back 340,000 hectares to local tribes in the largest freehold grant to Aboriginal people in the state's history. Speaking at the handover ceremony, John Abednego from the Torres Strait Regional Authority said governments should reverse the way they think about native title. "I'm asking the State and the Federal governments to change the scenario to prove to us that we haven't got traditional ties to the communities," he said. "We should have more of a 'short-cut' in the process in this particular issue." © 1999 Australian Broadcasting Corporation ------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/
