28 years since Australia's historic Mabo decision, 'there is a lot of unfinished business'

As Mabo Day is marked around the country on Wednesday, some say progress towards reconciliation between Australia’s Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples has stalled over the past 28 years.

Mr Lowe, a Gunditjmara Djabwurrung man, said the native title process is a hard undertaking for Indigenous groups."You speak to anyone that's been in a native title determination, it's tough for the people. It's traumatic, bringing up a lot of old stuff. Usually, it takes the best part of a decade to go through the courts," he told SBS News.

"Close to 30 years down the track, the progress has been stagnant ... There is a lot of unfinished business," he said."We've had small wins here and there, but they are few and far between."He said the faltering discussion around treaties at a federal level was perhaps the most disappointing. Some states and territories have moved towards treaties, but the federal government remains firmly opposed.

"Indigenous people thought this may be a new era of recognition of their rights - that also hasn't panned out as they thought."[But] Indigenous people are getting back, to the extent possible, control over their country and the ability to use the resources of their country. "Obviously in resource states like Western Australia there's a big concern around minerals, in other places like Victoria, there are different concerns. States generally have very nervous attitudes to native title because they fear they are going to lose control of their land systems."Michael Mansell, the chairman of the Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania, took aim at his state government in an interview with SBS News.

"Why isn't the government simply legislating to return land to those Aboriginal people that can't prove the difficult test of native title?"The woman fighting to see the Aboriginal flag fly permanently on the Sydney Harbour Bridge

Aborigines still need more land rights

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Source: SkyNewsAust - 🏆 7. / 78 Read more »