‘Father of land rights’ in large outback Aboriginal enclave explains how native title has backfired… and why the a whole lot of hundreds of thousands spent on the distant area have made little distinction

EXCLUSIVE  

When Donald Fraser affords a smile and handshake as he warmly says ‘Welcome to my nation’ from the entrance verandah of his Outback house he means it actually. 

Fraser is one in all about 2,000 Indigenous land house owners who’ve held freehold title over 103,000 sq. kilometres of Central Australia for the previous 42 years. 

He doesn’t name himself the daddy of land rights in South Australia‘s distant north west however that’s precisely what he’s. 

The self-admitted outdated ‘s***-stirrer’ was one of many fundamental driving forces behind the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Land Rights Act and is among the many final of these concerned nonetheless dwelling.

However the place Fraser as soon as believed that landmark laws would permit his individuals to find out their very own futures he now believes it ties them in bureaucratic knots that cease them shifting ahead. 

Anangu elder Donald Fraser is the daddy of land rights in South Australia’s far north west. He fought for Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara individuals to safe freehold possession of 103,000 sq km 

Donald Fraser grew up at Ernabella the place the missionaries insisted kids learnt Pitjantjatjara and inspired Anangu to take care of their conventional customs. Fraser is pictured in 1960 standing in entrance of a donkey carrying two different youngsters

Three of Donald Fraser’s daughters now work at Kenmore Park Anangu Faculty the place kids are taught Pitjantjatjara in addition to English. Fraser is pictured on the faculty

Fraser has lived in humpies, homes, and out within the spinifex. He had a stint in Sydney as a younger man and frolicked in Canberra the place he visited the Aboriginal Tent Embassy. ‘I assumed it was unusual,’ he says. ‘Folks shouting and carrying on.’

Anangu (pronounced arn-ahng-oo) are the individuals who converse the Pitjantjatjara (pit-jan-jah-jarra) and Yankunytjatjara (yan-kun-ja-jarra) Western Desert dialects and dwell on what is known as the APY Lands. 

Fraser says when land rights had been first granted it was group members who made most choices and had been successfully in management. He reckons that has modified in order that Anangu at the moment are on the underside of the ability pyramid. 

APY Lands have all the time required cash from federal and state authorities – a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} have been poured in over the a long time with little lasting profit to point out for it.

Fraser grew up on the APY Lands’ first main settlement when it was a mission generally known as Ernabella, based by the Presbyterian Church in 1937.

He’s ‘roughly’ 75 or 76. ‘I could possibly be older or I could possibly be youthful however I do not know as a result of I’ve received no date of delivery,’ he says.

Donald Fraser, pictured left within the arms of one other boy at Ernabella mission about 1948, grew up glad and properly cared for in a settlement run by the Presbyterian Church 

Donald Fraser is ‘roughly’ 75 or 76. ‘I could possibly be older or I could possibly be youthful however I do not know as a result of I’ve received no date of delivery,’ he says. He’s pictured standing in shorts in Ernabella creek 

As we speak, Ernabella is known as Pukatja and has a inhabitants of 465 Anangu, 46 per cent of whom are unemployed. The median private weekly revenue is $316.

Fraser lives throughout the road from Pukatja Roadhouse and sees limitless wasted alternatives.

The place as soon as there have been cattle stations on the Lands, there may be virtually no agriculture, and tourism is subsequent to non-existent.

The potential for profitable mining of minerals together with nickel, copper, titanium, platinum and palladium in addition to oil continues to be solely being explored. 

‘We by no means considered being businessmen as in working cattle stations and different stuff,’ Fraser says. ‘That is why we’re struggling now.

‘APY owns all the pieces when it needs to be owned by the group. We need to make the APY a caretaker so that every group can personal their group and the homelands and all the pieces else.

‘We have to have a look at the Land Rights Act and evaluate it ourselves and have a look at what went incorrect. I believe we set it up for lots of out of doors individuals to return and benefit from us and make some huge cash.’ 

One current main enchancment has been completion of the primary levels of a $156million roads improve, which started with sealing the route between Pukatja and Umuwa, the Lands’ administrative centre. 

Throughout a week-long go to to the Lands, Each day Mail Australia met white authorities contractors in primary jobs who had been incomes virtually $90,000 a yr and dwelling rent-free with no water or energy payments.      

Fraser began droving sheep at age 13, labored as a jackaroo at close by Kenmore Park and picked up mechanical, plumbing and electrical abilities. He’s pictured at Yunyarinyi in 1979

The APY Lands are a 15 hour drive from Adelaide and a 5 hour drive from Alice Springs. Among the many main communities are Pukatja, Fregon and Amanta in addition to Umuwa, the realm’s administration centre

Fraser appears to be like again on the mission instances with fondness. The missionaries insisted kids learnt Pitjantjatjara and inspired Anangu to take care of their conventional lore and customs. 

‘The missionaries had been superb,’ he says. ‘They listened to the tribal elders.’

Anangu moved to the Ernabella mission voluntarily and remained of their household teams. The missionaries offered paid employment elevating cattle and sheep in addition to rising greens.

As a toddler, Fraser rode donkeys after which horses, killed dingos for a £1 bounty at school holidays and supplemented his mission weight loss program with bush tucker reminiscent of quandong and native figs.

His early English vocabulary got here from the cowboy songs of Australian nation stars Slim Dusty and Buddy Williams however he did not perceive the phrases.  

Fraser didn’t know his father however had fairer pores and skin than most different kids at Ernabella and was advised to cover out within the bush when authorities officers got here to the mission. 

‘The missionaries had been keeping track of me,’ he says. ‘The welfare and the policemen had been looking for individuals like me.’

The Church handed management of the mission to the Ernabella Group Council in 1974 when Fraser was in his mid 20s. An deserted constructing at what’s now referred to as Pukatja is pictured

The place as soon as there have been cattle stations on the Lands, there may be virtually no agriculture, the potential for profitable mining continues to be solely being explored and tourism is subsequent to non-existent. An deserted cattle yard close to Amata is pictured

Fraser began droving sheep at age 13, labored as a jackaroo at close by Kenmore Park and picked up mechanical, plumbing and electrical abilities. He later learnt to fly gentle plane.

‘I did all of it,’ he says. ‘We made bricks to construct homes. I attempted a little bit of all the pieces.’  

The Church handed management of the mission to the Ernabella Group Council in 1974 when Fraser was in his mid 20s.

Two years later federal parliament handed the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act, permitting First Nations individuals to assert nation the place conventional possession could possibly be confirmed. 

Fraser and different younger males from Ernabella together with Kawaki ‘Punch’ Thompson started agitating for land rights over APY Lands which in 1981 they achieved.

Anangu now owned their nation underneath the APY Land Rights Act however it’s that laws that Fraser believes continues to be stopping his individuals getting forward.

‘Very long time in the past individuals labored on sheep and cattle stations and all the pieces,’ he says. 

‘The younger individuals do not care about land rights. They simply care concerning the Centrelink.’ 

Fraser, who will vote No within the Voice referendum, has all the time wished Anangu to dwell independently from authorities administration

APY Lands have all the time required cash from federal and state authorities – a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} have been invested over the a long time

Underneath the Act, two members from every of the Lands’ seven fundamental communities are elected to serve on an government board that appoints a basic supervisor who has an administrative arm beneath him.

Fraser, who will vote No within the Voice to Parliament referendum, was the primary chairman of the AYP Board and acquired the Order of Australia Medal ‘in recognition of service to the Aboriginal group’ in 1994. 

He has all the time wished Anangu to dwell independently from authorities administration however says that may solely occur after they can get up on their very own.

‘It will be nice to run our personal land a second time,’ he says. ‘That is our land, our nation.

‘The practice that we constructed went off the tracks a bit. The land rights was finished a very long time in the past not realizing the long run and that is the place we run into issues.

Fraser says when land rights had been first granted it was group members who made most choices and had been successfully in management. He reckons that has modified in order that Anangu at the moment are on the underside of the ability pyramid

‘Once I began the land rights my identify was a s***-stirrer. We by no means used to observe the Land Rights Act. APY is controlling all the pieces based on the Act. 

‘The land rights just isn’t serving to us. The land rights is right here to make us sit down and return to the Forties and Fifties.’ 

APY basic supervisor Richard King makes no apologies for strictly adhering to the Act.

‘The Act is there to guard Anangu and the Act is there to make sure all Anangu profit, not simply sure people,’ he says.

Fraser likens the unique APY governance construction to an umbrella’s cover containing all group members deciding their destiny, with an government board beneath that, adopted by administration and an administrative group.

‘Once I end, the umbrella was proper manner up,’ he says. ‘The wind blew the umbrella the wrong way up.

‘The supervisor is on prime of the chief. It is 14 individuals from these communities making choices for two,000 and that is incorrect.’

As chairman of the APY Board within the Nineteen Eighties Fraser launched a allow system that allowed solely Anangu automated entry to the Lands, the place alcohol is banned. 

He believes these restrictions not work and as a substitute are retaining funding out of the area. 

‘I needed to do one thing to cease the grog however now we’re swimming in grog,’ he says. ‘The allow was introduced in and now we’re caught with it. The allow is holding all the pieces up.’

The Board’s present construction was outlined underneath 2016 amendments to the APY Land Rights Act which included a gender steadiness and the elimination of voting by marbles to modernise the election course of.

Fraser believes modifications to Act have diminished group members’ say in their very own future however blames himself for what he sees as issues with the unique doc.

‘I really feel responsible as a result of I did it with out it,’ he says. ‘ I do not need to be the daddy of land rights. I simply need the perfect for the individuals.’

APY basic supervisor Richard King says Lands are run ‘by the e-book’  

The APY flag takes the central place of prominence between the Aboriginal and Australian flags on the Lands’ administration centre in Umuwa

APY basic supervisor Richard King advised Each day Mail Australia he makes no apologies for strictly adhering to the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Land Rights Act.

‘The Act is there to guard Anangu and the Act is there to make sure all Anangu profit, not simply sure people,’ he says.

‘One of many issues I’ve finished is be sure that everybody who needs to return on the Lands goes by way of the Act.

‘Now, sure particular person did not like that and do not like that also however the actuality is the Act is there to guard all conventional house owners.’

Mr King is APY’s longest serving and first Indigenous basic supervisor and can step down in 2024 after 9 years.

‘My complete life I’ve labored in justice and for social justice and all the pieces is completed by the e-book,’ he says.

‘After they say there’s an excessive amount of energy in APY there’s not an excessive amount of energy, there’s simply the statutory accountability that we’ve and what we’re doing is holding people to account who beforehand had open slather and had simply run amok.

‘We have now to do this if we’ll be establishing any kind of future for Anangu themselves.’