
Native title win for Millewa-Mallee First Nations peoples after decades-long fight
The federal court on Friday awarded the historic native title determination to the Indigenous peoples of the Millewa-Mallee from northwest Victoria, for the first time granting exclusive native title rights in the state.
Exclusive native title means the three traditional owner groups which make up the First Nations peoples of the Millewa-Mallee – Latji Latji, Ngintait and Nyeri Nyeri – have the right to control access to their country under traditional law and customs.
Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email
The determination covers thousands of square kilometres including Mildura and extending through the Murray-Sunset National Park to the South Australia border.
It is the strongest form of native title rights and something the Latji Latji, Ngintait and Nyeri Nyeri people have been granted over some areas included in the determination.
Shane Jones Senior, a Latji Latji man and the applicant for the peoples of the Millewa-Mallee, said he was proud of the result.
'Alongside all First Peoples of the Millewa-Mallee, including the Ngintait and Nyeri Nyeri peoples, we continue to live our culture,' he said.
'With native title, our present and future generations can continue the legacy of all our elders and emerging elders.'
The decision sets a precedent that may support other native title holders and claim groups to seek this same form of recognition.
The native title holders also have non-exclusive rights, including the right to access the land and use its resources, and to protect sites, objects and places of cultural and spiritual significance.
Nyeri Nyeri elder Wendy Brabham said the group have been seeking native title recognition for more than 25 years.
'I hear the voices of our Nyeri Nyeri ancestors, I hear the voices of our present generations,' she said.
'They weathered the storm; we are still weathering the storm.'
Brabham said she hopes future generations will build on the federal court's decision to honour the ancestors by continuing to strengthen, preserve and share culture.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Guardian
26 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘It's tedious. It's repetitive': why life admin is awful, and how to do it anyway
Chantal Maher, a physiotherapy lecturer in Sydney, has a niggling life admin task on her mental to-do list. It has been on her mind for four years. 'I've tried to do it twice, but because I got married and changed my name I had to do a change-of-name certificate. That delayed it further. It was like a whole other hurdle,' she says. The task is combining her two superannuation (pension) accounts, so that she only pays one admin fee. 'It's too annoying. There's incentive as I'd save money, but finding time for it is another thing.' Mia Northrop, co-author of Life Admin Hacks, has encountered countless situations like this. She says people can get 'stuck' in different stages of completing a task. 'You might be really good at starting and really bad at finishing,' she says, or vice versa. 'So you need to know this about yourself so that you can overcome the challenge.' When people struggle with admin, such as tax returns or creating a will, it can stem from fear of failure, says Northrop. 'It's tedious. It's repetitive. It is often asking us to work on things that we are not particularly good at or confident about. That's where a lot of procrastination can come into it because we aren't particularly proficient, or we're not passionate about it.' 'Everyone procrastinates to some extent,' says clinical psychologist Dr Catherine Houlihan, from the University of the Sunshine Coast. 'There's a bit of stigma around it, because many people say it's laziness or poor time management, and none of those things are true. It is actually a symptom of perfectionism. 'When people have very high standards for themselves, and they worry about doing things perfectly … then, due to the standard not being met, guilt and shame and self-detrimental talk can come in.' Sign up for our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning There's another reason Maher has put off her task – it seems harder than it needs to be. 'I feel frustrated because I think [the companies] could make my life easier,' she says. 'Part of me wonders if they make it deliberately awkward so we don't do it.' Certain life admin tasks are irritating because you may only encounter them once. Associate Prof Micah Goldwater, a cognitive scientist at the University of Sydney, says we have to invest a lot of mental effort in learning new tasks. Then when we're done, it 'feels like there is very little use for it'. 'With online forms there's an initial block because … you're having to learn how to use the specific form,' he says. 'The functionality of all these forms is slightly different, and you have to be very detail-oriented and focused to work it out. Sometimes it seems like the trade-off isn't worth it.' So what can a life-admin avoider do to tick off tedious tasks? Northrop says she can't get passionate about doing her tax return, so she created a checklist for herself – she ticks off sub-tasks throughout the year. 'I have a folder where I save everything as I go so that when it comes to tax time, it's not overwhelming.' Houlihan suggests incorporating rewards as you complete each stage. 'Do one thing first and then pause and do something more enjoyable, have a break and go back to it,' she says. When Houlihan tackles an unpleasant task, she will break for 'a pastry at a cafe, spending time in nature or watching the TV show I wanted to watch … a reward can help motivate us'. Telling other people what you plan to do can be helpful, says Northrop, but Houlihan says it can be controversial too. 'You don't want people to nag you,' says Houlihan. 'That might give the tasks even more negative connotations' – which reinforces procrastination. 'But if you say to someone that loves and cares about you 'I want to do this by Friday', it can help you hold yourself accountable.' The worse you feel about your ability to do a task, the less likely you'll be to attempt it, and then the worse you'll feel for not doing it. So choose your people wisely: 'Not someone who is going to be on your back, or going to make you feel bad if you don't do it.' 'If there's a task I have to do, rather than being on a vague to-do list, I put it into my calendar,' says Goldwater. Blocking off time in your day means it's more likely to happen, he says. 'Everything is in my calendar now. If it's not on the calendar, I will most likely forget about it. Life admin tasks are one of those things.' Combining accountability buddies with blocking out time, writer and educator Tyler Alterman found a novel way to beat procrastination. On X, he posted that throwing a 'forcing party', where he and his friends got together to do life admin they'd been avoiding, was a huge success. 'A passport has been filed for, an inbox has been zero'd, a personal website has been created, & more,' he wrote. Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips after newsletter promotion If your environment is working against you, it might help to remove some of that friction, says Northrop. 'Shut down distractions, turn off notifications, or listen to music that gets you in that flow state.' If you're neurodivergent, 'it's extra challenging', she adds. 'There's no silver bullet. It's often a mixture of the physical environment and our own personality … I've had clients who have multiple children or health issues they're having to accommodate, and there are only so many hours in the day.' 'If boring tasks sit at the end of your day or the end of your week, they're probably looming in the back of your mind,' says Houlihan. 'The anticipation of how unpleasant it will be grows and grows. 'One quick tip is to flip your calendar upside down – start with the most boring things first and to get them out of the way.' Some life admin is incredibly convoluted and taxing. At this point, it's worth considering engaging someone to help you navigate it, such as a social worker or solicitor. Ines Jusufspahic is an immigration lawyer in Sydney who works with individuals and companies to complete working visas and partner visas. 'We take the angst out of it as much as possible,' the principal solicitor at Rocket & Ash Immigration Law says. Jusufspahic has had clients return to Brazil, Argentina and the UK: they had avoided the paperwork for so long, there wasn't enough time to process their visas. 'This is often the biggest problem in their life, and there's often a time pressure,' she says. 'It's a process that people really dislike, and it's really confusing for some people.' Houlihan says some people are chronic procrastinators, and the first step is recognising any patterns in your behaviour. 'If you've still got that piece of paper on your table, then is that the only thing that's still lying around?' she says. If it's a widespread issue, and causing negative thoughts, a therapist can help you identify and work through the possible emotional triggers and understand why. 'That's really the key to what to do about it.' 'I think we are often just being too hard on ourselves,' says Houlihan. 'We can become trapped in a cycle of heightened stimulation and being on the go, especially if you have young children, and we can have this sense of urgency that we just apply to all tasks. 'Actually take stock and think 'Do I need to do this now?'' Houlihan has put off renewing her passport, as it's not due for months. So she simply took it off her to-do list for now. 'Because I could just do with one less thing at the moment.' Opting to take time for yourself instead can be an act of self-care, she says. Maher agrees: 'If my choice is to go for a run, read a book, see a friend or do life admin, I'm gonna choose the other three things every single day of the week.'


Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
US Navy sailor missing at sea for two days, feared dead
A US Navy sailor has fallen overboard during military exercises in the Timor Sea just north of Australia, triggering a massive search. Rescue crews have been operating around the clock in an attempt to locate the man who has been missing since Monday. Australian assets are being contributed to the search and rescue operation led by the US, which has yet to yield any results. The sailor was reported missing from the nuclear-powered USS George Washington aircraft carrier which is still sailing in the Timor Sea, northwest of Darwin. It remains in the area while more than 40,000 military personnel from 19 countries take part in Exercise Talisman Sabre. This biennial event is Australia's largest military training exercise and has been underway since July 17. It was due to wrap up by August 4 but rescue operations have hampered this as emergency teams continue searching for the lost sailor. Australia's Border Force and Defence Force have supplied a boat and an aircraft to assist the US Navy to find the soldier.


The Guardian
a day ago
- The Guardian
‘The real issue is change': Edinburgh University's first Black philosophy professor on racism and reform
For Tommy J Curry the question about Edinburgh University's institutional racism, or its debts around transatlantic slavery and scientific racism, can be captured by one simple fact: he is the first Black philosophy professor in its 440-year history. As the Louisiana-born academic who helped lead the university's self-critical inquiry into its extensive links to transatlantic slavery and the construction of racist theories of human biology, that sharply captures the challenge it faces. Not just that, Curry suspects he is the first Black academic in the UK to lead a university's investigation into its links to enslavement and empire. His goal is to guarantee he is far from the last Black professor. 'I'm a first-generation person. I grew up in poverty, grew up at the end of segregation,' he said. 'Why is that important to not be the first? Well, it's important because everybody has an 'in', and if there's nothing left after your 'in', you just become a symbol for somebody else's story. 'I'll be the subject of another report, but I won't have influence, I wouldn't have ushered in any of the people that look like me that the world said couldn't be.' The point is not to simply produce a report but to act, he said. 'The real fundamental issue is change. Not a symbolic apology, not a pay cheque. [How] do you create leagues of Black thinkers and clinicians and doctors and engineers and artists that fill the gap of what were lost by what white people engineered for centuries that deprived the world of Black human genius. That's why this report matters so much to me.' In turn, he added, Scotland could become better equipped to tackle the endemic problems of racial disparity in health outcomes, mortality, employment, housing, education. 'So when you think of it this way, what does reparations mean if it doesn't mean dealing with the consequences that were created by the very institutions you want to write the cheque?' His singular status in Edinburgh's philosophy department (which lists 12 tenured professors) also, he added, points to one of the most important findings of its investigation: the 'severe underrepresentation' of Black staff, the patchy recruitment of Black and ethnically minoritised students, and continuing staff and student experiences of racism. The decolonisation review, which was co-chaired by Dr Nicola Frith, an expert in reparations policy, found that less than 1% (150 out of 17,260) of the university's employees were Black – a figure that has been static for some years. A different picture emerges with other ethnic groups. The number of Asians – a category which includes Japanese, Chinese and south Asian people – reached 9% in 2022-23, up from 7% in 2018-19. Among the university's 49,430 students in 2022-23, 34% of its undergraduates were Asian – driven largely by growing numbers of Chinese students – with just 2% Black. Among postgraduates, 44% were Asian, 5% Black. The report says the increasing diversity in the university's population 'does not benefit Black staff and students' yet Edinburgh prides itself on being a 'global institution'. That means it should measure progress against the world's demographics too. 'While there is a dominant white racial majority in the UK, and especially in Scotland, the basis of comparison must not presume that small numbers of non-white racial and ethnic minorities in Scotland offer an appropriate baseline for comparison.' Scottish census data from 2021 puts the country's non-white minority ethnic population at 7.1%, but in Edinburgh that figure is just over 15% – nearly 77,800 people, 2.1% (10,881) of them Black. Across England and Wales, 18.3% of the population are from minority ethnic communities, 2.5% of them Black. 'So I ask this very seriously,' Curry continued. 'In the United States, before the end of Jim Crow segregation [in 1965], there was roughly 1.2% of Black scholars there. So roughly 1% of the people, PhDs, that were teaching faculty. 'Scotland is a free society. It claims it's a society that's free from racism and yet you have about the same percentage of Black people teaching here. So how does a free society that's free of racism produce the same kind of outcomes that a segregated, racist society produced in the United States?' Sign up to The Long Wave Nesrine Malik and Jason Okundaye deliver your weekly dose of Black life and culture from around the world after newsletter promotion That demonstrates a sequence, a chain of action and consequence which the university can now choose to break, he said. The newly published slavery and decolonisation review urges Edinburgh to fund a new centre for the study of racisms, colonialism and anti-Black violence and to prioritise the recruitment of Black and ethnically minoritised academics, researchers and students – partly funded by new scholarships – and ensure equal access to research funding. Frith points to the review team's decision to recruit paid Black and minority ethnic scholars and activists who specialise in colonialism, reparations policy and the repatriation of remains. Edinburgh has been a leading centre for reparations research for a decade, she said, since it held an international conference on reparations in 2015. The university, led by its principal, Peter Mathieson, made what Frith calls the 'really good decision' to set up the review after a 'collective groundswell' from staff and students to respond to the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020, and Glasgow University's groundbreaking report in 2018 on its slavery debt, as well as a controversy at Edinburgh in 2020 over the renaming of a university building named after the philosopher and alumnus David Hume, author of a 'notorious footnote' in 1753 claiming 'the Negroes' were 'naturally inferior'. 'I don't see that history as something that sits in the past with a closed door,' Frith adds. 'It is something that directly affects all of us today in very different and uneven ways, but it nonetheless does affect the shape of our society, our relations, everything.' Frith and Curry argue that if the university adopts their group's recommendations, the impact could be profound. 'There are very few things that stand beyond our lifetime,' said Curry. 'A centre, an institute, the creation of Black scholars in the UK around this issue of racism, dehumanisation and colonialism is something that I think will change the intellectual tenor and academic climate of the country. Nothing like it exists. 'So when we're looking at why it's important, it's because if the University of Edinburgh served as the pinnacle of the 17th, 18th and early 19th century for this work, why can't it serve as the same centre to undo it in the 21st century?'