The Yuwibara people’s physical, spiritual and emotional connection to more than 313,000 hectares of land and waters around Mackay will be formally recognised at a court hearing today.
Member for Mackay and Assistant State Development Minister Julieanne Gilbert said the determination would protect the Yuwibara people’s rights and help build the next generation’s connection to country.
“This determination recognises the Yuwibara people’s connection to land and waters in and around Mackay, north to Bloomsbury, westwards across the coastal plains to the Great Dividing Range and south to Cape Palmerston,” Ms Gilbert said.
“This will help build the next generation of Yuwibara people’s ancestral connection to their country and traditions.”
Senior Yuwibara woman and applicant Jenifer Darr said the determination would help the Yuwi people preserve their longstanding and continuous physical, spiritual and emotional connection to country for generations to come.
“I’ve been told stories by my elders of my great grandmother walking an old land bridge at low tide from St Helens to Cape Hillsborough, and of ceremonies held on the water’s edge at the O’Connell River with other clans and the neighbouring mobs,” Ms Darr said.
“Through generations our ancestors have moved around this land from season to season. We’ve lived off this land and we’ve managed the land.
“This determination will help the Yuwi people to preserve and promote our rich and vibrant culture for generations to come.
“We will pass down our skills and our knowledge and we will work to re-kindle and to preserve the Yuwibara language.
“Re-kindling language promotes the uniqueness of our mother tongue, and is the essence of who we are. It anchors us, and separates us and installs another First Nation language into the Australian vernacular.
“Yuwi clans people arrive at determination standing upon the shoulders of all those who went before us. It is to all of them we owe our existence today and celebrate this occasion.
“We honour each and every one of them and the sacrifice they made – and we thank our forefathers and foremothers.”
Natural Resources Minister Dr Anthony Lynham congratulated the Yuwibara people and the many groups involved for the co-operation required to achieve the determination.
Justice Robertson will conduct the consent determination hearing at the Mackay Surf Lifesaving Supporters Club at 10.15am today (Tuesday).
