00:00Gathering for a historic return of land.
00:05Always lost, and always welcome, Africa's land.
00:14The last surviving traditional owner to lodge this land rights claim
00:18didn't think she would see this day.
00:21I'm thinking I'm getting old now, I might get sick now.
00:25I might be going to lose that country now.
00:29I would pass away now. I got real sick.
00:34The Waqaya Eliawara traditional owners and families this week
00:38have danced on their country near Canteen Creek,
00:41southeast of Tennant Creek,
00:43to mark the land being formally returned
00:46after more than four decades of fighting for justice.
00:50I always keep going dry and hooded for a long time.
00:55They've come and lived today every meeting.
01:00What about it?
01:02Today we're making history again.
01:04The Waqaya Eliawara land claim is one of our last two outstanding claims
01:10under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act.
01:14The Central Land Council lodged the claim in 1980,
01:18and since then, traditional owners have received two of three portions of the claimed area,
01:23agreeing to withdraw the township of Canteen Creek.
01:27Now they're getting the remaining land.
01:30They've cut a deal to surrender native title rights
01:33and have around 484,000 hectares of land returned.
01:40I'm happy about it.
01:43I'm afraid of myself.
01:46For a long time I was choking with that blade,
01:50biting, getting it.
01:55A legacy of land that can now be handed down.
01:59This is the northeast part.
02:21If you don't knowици,
02:23you can get connected leave the Looks One Arcade Blood.
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