Stephen on behalf of the Ugar People v State of Queensland

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT Background 1 This proceeding arises out of an application for determination of native title filed on 23 June 1996 in accordance with the procedures set out in the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) ('the Act'). Mr Joseph Wacando Stephen (Jnr) was the original named applicant in this claim made on behalf of the people of Ugar (Stephen) Island in the Torres Strait. Following his death, Mr Napau Pedro Stephen proceeded as the named applicant on behalf of the Ugar People. The main respondent to this determination application is the State of Queensland. 2 The determination application shows the claim area as comprising the land and waters on the landward side of the high water mark of: '(a) Lot 7 on Plan TS174 being part of the island referred to as Stephens Island or Ugar Island excluding the areas described as: (i) Lease T on Deposited Plan 175711 in Lot 7 on Plan TS174; (ii) Lease A on Deposited Plan 127008 in Lot 7 on Plan TS174; (b) Lot 44 on Plan TS203 referred to as Campbell Island; and (c) Lot 60 on Plan TS242 referred to as Pearce Cay.' 3 The determination application also lists certain areas as not covered by the claim. Those areas are: 'Lot 8 on Plan TS175, Lot 9 on Plan TS175, Lot 1 on Plan AP7280, Lease T on Deposited Plan 175711 in Lot 7 on Plan TS174, Lease A on Deposited Plan 127008 in Lot 7 on Plan TS174 and all Roads'. 4 The original application was amended, and was further amended by a native title determination application filed on 18 November 2004 to reduce the area of the claim by excluding certain areas previously included. The parties to the claim have mediated the issues which arose under the application to the point where they have agreed to a consent determination. The agreement concerns exclusive and non-exclusive rights of possession, occupation, use and enjoyment of the lands and waters in the claim area. This agreement is subject to the Court being satisfied that it has the power to make the determination sought and that it is proper to do so. Power of the Court 5 This Court has jurisdiction to hear and determine applications for a determination of native title in relation to an area for which there is no approved determination of native title: ss 13, 61 and 81 of the Act. Division 1C of Part 4 of the Act provides for agreements, to be made by some or all of the parties to an application, to settle the application or part of it. 6 Section 87 of the Act provides that the Court may, if it is satisfied that such an order is within the power of the Court, make an order in, or consistent with, the terms of the parties' written agreement without holding a hearing. 7 Section 94A of the Actrequires that an order of this Court which makes a determination of native title must set out details of the matters mentioned in s 225 of the Act. Section 225 provides: 'A determination of native title is a determination whether or not native title exists in relation to a particular area (the determination area) of land or waters and, if it does exist, a determination of: (a) who the persons, or each group of persons, holding the common or group rights comprising the native title are; and (b) the nature and extent of the native title rights and interests in relation to the determination area; and (c) the nature and extent of any other interests in relation to the determination area; and (d) the relationship between the rights and interests in paragraphs (b) and (c) (taking into account the effect of this Act); and (e) to the extent that the land or waters in the determination area are not covered by a non-exclusive agricultural lease or a non-exclusive pastoral lease - whether the native title rights and interests confer possession, occupation, use and enjoyment of that land or waters on the native title holders to the exclusion of all others. Note: The determination may deal with the matters in paragraphs (c) and (d) by referring to a particular kind or particular kinds of non-native title interests.' (original emphasis) Consideration of Agreement and Draft Determination 8 In considering whether it is appropriate to make the orders that the parties seek, I have had the benefit of an affidavit of the late Mr Joseph Wacando Stephen filed on 21 January 2000. I have also had the benefit of an anthropological report prepared on behalf of the applicant in September 2000 by Mr Garrick Hitchcock, Consultant Anthropologist, and filed on 19 November 2004. Mr Hitchcock has worked with the Torres Strait Islander community for a number of years. 9 Mr Hitchcock's account reveals that it is generally assumed that the eastern Torres Strait Islanders are the descendants of people who voyaged into Torres Strait several thousand years ago. Ugar, located much closer to the Papua New Guinea mainland than the Murray Islands and Erub, was presumably inhabited, or at least visited, even earlier. Ugar Islanders traded with other Torres Strait Islanders and Papuans, engaged in ceremonial and ritual activity and warfare, and had a seasonally based settlement and terrestrial and maritime subsistence system. 10 Ugar was named Stephens Island by Captain William Bligh in 1792. On 7 September of that year, Captain Bligh, in command of HMS Providence and Assistant, anchored off Ugar. Mr Hitchcock records that early encounters between the Ugar People and European explorers and seafarers were sometimes amicable and mutually beneficial, at other times hostile. The influx of Europeans, South Sea Islanders and Asians into Torres Strait increased dramatically following the discovery of pearlshell in Torres Strait in 1869. 11 Although contact between the eastern islands and Europeans dates to the late eighteenth century, it was from the mid 1860s that the Islanders experienced a great influx of outsiders exploiting marine resources, the introduction of Christianity, and increasing government control of their lives. Mr Hitchcock notes that, although these events significantly changed the societies of Torres Strait, the existing kinship and land tenure systems of the islands were not extinguished; rather, the systems withstood the turbulent changes and accommodated those newcomers who married into Torres Strait Island communities. Their children inherited land according to the existing indigenous principles, and passed it on in like fashion to their descendants. 12 Relationships within the Ugar community are expressed through the idiom of kinship. One's relationship to others organises membership of family groups and the inheritance of rights over land and seas from ancestors. As the documentary evidence shows, the Ugar People still maintain a system of traditional land ownership which is continuous with the system as it operated before the assertion of sovereignty by the British Crown in 1879. The continuing connection between the Ugar People and the determination area is well recognised. The late Mr Joseph Wacando Stephen had deposed in support of the Ugar People's native title rights over the determination area: '5. The traditional land owners have an acknowledged system of traditional laws and customs which they have observed and continue to observe relating to, among other things, land ownership. These laws and customs determine who are the rightful owners of particular parcels of land, how such ownership may rightfully pass from one person to another and collectively recognise the continuing traditional associations with the claim area of the Stephen Island people. 6. In support of some of the rights included as part of the continuing traditional inheritance of Stephen Island people and therefore as part of their native title rights, I confirm that: (a) Stephen Island people have always enjoyed, and continue to enjoy, their rights to use, occupy and live on their land and to exclude others from it and to use and enjoy the natural resources of the land such as animal and plant life. These rights derive from traditional laws and customs which have been exercised and observed by Stephen island people from time immemorial, up to the present day. (b) Stephen Island people leave their land to the children and others in accordance with their tradition and custom and grant and withhold permission for others to use their land. As part of their traditional system of land tenure, Stephen Island elders explain the extent and boundaries of their lands to their successors and teach them to respect the lands belonging to other families on the island. (c) Stephen Island people hunt over the land, forage the land, garden the land and generally use the resources of the land albeit in somewhat changing ways over the years. For example, Stephen Island people utilise a variety of domesticated and wild plants including mango, coconut, banana, red bush apple, pawpaw and bamboo. The knowledge pertaining to the management and use of these and other resources in the claim area is passed on to the children by their parents and elders. (d) Stephen Island people trade and share in their natural resources amongst themselves and trade with others including Papuans, other Torres Strait Islanders and non-indigenous persons. For example, the customary trade between Stephen Island people and Papuans has taken place since time immemorial and this trading relationship has continued unbroken up to the present day. (e) Stephen Island people conduct social, religious and economic life upon the claim area including the visiting of cultural sites of significance, conducting burials and tomb stone openings, participating in feasts and associated traditional dancing and being responsible on a daily basis for the care of the land. Stephen Island elders play an active role in teaching children the knowledge, rights and responsibilities associated with these traditional activities (e.g. kup meri) to ensure their continued observance.' 13 I accept the evidence contained in Mr Stephen's affidavit and the opinions contained in Mr Hitchcock's report. I am satisfied that: (a) native title exists in relation to the lands and waters identified in the draft determination agreed to by the parties; (b) the members of the claimant group referred to as the Ugar People are members of a society of peoples descended from the Torres Strait Islander peoples who as a society at the time of sovereignty occupied the lands and waters identified in the draft determination in accordance with traditional laws and customs acknowledged and observed by them; (c) the laws and customs acknowledged and observed by the society at sovereignty are continued to be acknowledged and observed by the members of the claim group and have been acknowledged and observed by their predecessors from the time of sovereignty to the present time; (d) the members of the claim group and their predecessors through their continued acknowledgement and observance of the traditional laws and customs which existed at the time of sovereignty, have maintained since that time a connection to the determination area; (e) the native title rights and interests in the determination area are held by the persons who are or are entitled to be or become members of the claim group called the Ugar People; and (f) the nature and extent of the exclusive and non-exclusive native title rights and interests in relation to the determination area are as set out in the agreed draft determination. 14 I am also satisfied on the materials that there are other interests in and in relation to the determination area. Those interests and their relationship with the native title interests are set out in Schedule 4 of the agreed draft determination. Orders and Determinations 15 The proposed Orders, which are consistent with the terms agreed by the parties, recognise that the Ugar People, as the common law holders of the native title, are entitled to possess, occupy, use and enjoy the land and waters of the determination area, in accordance with their traditional laws and customs. The proposed Orders also recognise the other interests in the lands and waters in the determination area and the relationship of those interests with the native title interests. The proposed Order contains the elements required by s 94A and s 225 of the Act. 16 I am satisfied that it is within the power of the Court to make the Orders sought and that these Orders can appropriately be made to give effect to the parties' agreement without a full hearing of the determination application. I therefore make the Orders and determination attached as the Appendix to these reasons. I certify that the preceding sixteen (16) numbered paragraphs are a true copy of the Reasons for Judgment herein of the Honourable Justice Cooper.