Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett today tabled a bill in parliament that recognises the Noongar people as traditional owners of large areas of the state's south-west.
The bill still has to go to cabinet and then to parliament before it is passed but, if successful, it will mark the first time the West Australian government has recognised the Noongar people as the traditional owners of the south west.
Premier Barnett said it was the most comprehensive agreement of its kind in Australian history.
"This is very important to the Noongar people," he said. "It's more than symbolic."
"It is giving them proper and overdue recognition. I think it also is an important step along the road to reconciliation."
The bill is part of a greater settlement process, worth $1.3 billion, between the state and the Noongar people.
Under the agreement, $50 million will be paid to the Noongar trust each year over a 12-year period.
But it will also mean that all future Noongar native title claims will be renounced.
The South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council (SWALSC) have been negotiating the deal on behalf of six principal native title claim groups.
SWALSC CEO Glen Kelly said that striking an agreement in Parliament had been a better option than the more-traditional process of recognising native title in court.
"If we secure native title rights through the court, we get no land and everyone’s dispossession is entrenched forever in law, if we do an alternative settlement outside of court we actually get land and we get rights to that land in terms of access," he said.
Noongar elder Richard Wilkes said some groups some groups had been left out of the process.
"To tell you the truth, I have gone to some of the meetings but I don’t like their attitude and I don’t like what they represent and I don't agree with it," he said.
But elder Arthur Slater said the recognition made a big difference to traditional owners.
"We were feeling that we were strangers in this country," he said. "The only places we had were the little reserves on the outskirts of town. That was the only ground that we felt we had ownership of."
The settlement process is expected to wrap up in July this year.
