Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankuntjatjara peoples title to South Australia northwest starts in 1966 in Australian first
The lands in the far northwest corner of South Australia given back to the Anangu Pitjantjatjaraka Yankuntjatjara (APY) peoples.
Image by APY Art Centre Collective
South Australia’s Aboriginal Lands Trust, set up in 1966, was the first by an Australian government in the 20th Century to grant Aborigines title to land.
Titles for nine missions and reserves, plus 32 smaller areas, were vested in the trust and leased back to the Aboriginal communities. The major Aboriginal Lands Trust communities were Yalata, Gerard, Koonibba, Davenport, Nepabunna, Point Pearce, Raukkan (Point McLeay) and Umoona.
In 1981, the Pitjantjatjara people were granted title to the north-west corner of the state comprising the existing North-West Aboriginal Reserve, the Ernabella, Granite Downs and Kenmore Park pastoral leases and vacant Crown land south of Ernabella.
There are eight communities on this land (102,500 sq km) held by the Anangu Pitjantjatjaraka Yankuntjatjara (APY) peoples. It cannot be sold, subdivided or resumed. Visitors need a permit from councils elected to oversee each Aboriginal reserve. Groups such as mining companies must negotiate over access and development.
In 1984, the Anangu people were given title to the Maralinga Tjarutja (80,000 square kilomtres) south of the Pitjantjatjara Lands. These lands had been taken over for atomic weapons testing in the 1950s. In addition to the areas mapped as Aboriginal lands, many culturally-significant sites often on land not owned by Aborigines, were registered and protected.
A Land Fund and the Indigenous Land Corporation (ILC), set up by the federal government, helped people buy land and managed it to provide social, cultural, environmental and economic benefits. The ILC, based in Adelaide, administered the Land Fund.