The Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people in Victoria have filed a native title claim with the federal court, seeking recognition over country spanning much of metropolitan Melbourne. The application area stretches from beyond the Great Dividing Range, west to the Werribee River, east to Mount Baw Baw and south to Mordialloc Creek. One of the applicants, Darcy Cohen-Hunter, says it's a proud moment.
00:00Yeah, so I do want to make it incredibly clear to everybody that this process does
00:08not encompass private land, so anyone that is sort of concerned about that, we do not
00:15have any claim to private land, it is primarily Crown land and I guess mainly things like
00:23national parks that we get to have our say in recognition in the land of waters there.
00:28Why did you decide to launch this claim, why is it extremely important to you and your
00:33people?
00:34I guess it's something that's been happening a long time in the making for generations
00:40and it's important to us that we have a say in the lands and waters that we have been
00:47caring for for generations and obviously this is an incredibly proud moment for our mob and
00:54yeah, it's about that recognition and the formal recognition that is and being able
01:00to practice our culture and have a say in the land.
01:03When you say have a say in the land and the management of the land, can you dig into the
01:08specifics a little bit more?
01:09I guess, I mean it's pretty early stages at the moment so what we will do and what we
01:15won't do and all of that is something to discuss later on but I guess the main objective is that,
01:24you know, especially in terms of the parks and things, is to be able to, the management
01:30of that and to care for the country and to make sure that it's prosperous and healthy like we've been doing for thousands of years.
01:34How important, Darcy, is native title to truth-telling?
01:39Incredibly important.
01:41Through the process itself we gather so much evidence about our past and our future and our history
01:47and that exposes itself through the claim process and tells a story of our mob and the truth of what happened to us and what will happen for us.
02:01You touched on a moment ago, Darcy, how this claim has been years in the making.
02:05Can you take us back through and how far back it goes?
02:09Yeah, well, if you think about it, this is an intergenerational thing back in the 1830s at least,
02:15when people came to Melbourne and settled here.
02:19This has been in the process for years of trying to reclaim our land and waters and the rights to practice our culture on those lands and waters.
02:28And that's the way I see it.
02:31I know that there are the native titles before the courts and some have already gone through.
02:37What sort of precedent might that set?
02:39How might it help your case?
02:42I think it's, I mean, any precedent from the court is obviously helpful in guiding us in the right direction and what we need to do and what works and what doesn't.
02:50And as well, I mean, hopefully we can make good negotiations with all the parties that are the relevant parties and we can keep the court out of it as much as possible.
03:01But yeah, prior decisions, of course, are incredibly helpful in showing us the way to go and what we need to do.
03:09What do you believe the timeline to be from here?
03:12It's pretty hard to say. I honestly couldn't tell you.
03:16There's lots and lots of research and lots of evidence that we need to show that is important to us and important to the claim.
03:23And so it could take a number of years, if anything, but this is an important first step, of course.
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