NORTHERN AUSTRALIA Regional Indigenous Land and Sea Strategy 2019 – 2022 ILSC: by the Numbers 2020 LAND MANAGEMENT $ By the ILSC in the 1.2 Indigenous Estate BILLION 774 INVESTED since 1996 PROJECTS FUNDED 6.1 260 MILLION HECTARES ACQUIRED MESSAGE FROM THE ILSC CHAIRPERSON PROPERTIES $660 Returned to the MILLION Welcome to the Regional Indigenous Land and Sea Strategy (RILSS) for the Northern Indigenous Estate invested Australia region. For the This RILSS represents an additional, more focused layer to the Indigenous Land and Sea Indigenous Estate Corporation (ILSC) Group’s strategic direction as laid out in the National Indigenous SINCE Land and Sea Strategy (NILSS) for the period 2019 to 2022. These are the first national and regional land and sea strategies that include water-based activities, following from PROPERTIES DIVESTED 2012 legislative changes to the ILSC and its role. This RILSS reaffirms the ILSC’s commitment to being the trusted partner in developing OVER this Indigenous Estate and introduces our impact driven vision of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people enjoying opportunities and benefits that the return of country and 76% 7206 * its management brings. We will deliver against this in the Northern Australia region by: OF PROPERTIES TOTAL JOBS > Acquiring, granting and divesting land and water interests to Indigenous corporations; ACQUIRED 714 > Supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to strengthen culture INDIGENOUS through reconnection with country; For JOBS > Building the capacity and capability of Indigenous corporations to sustainably Indigenous manage and protect country; and people > Partnering with Indigenous corporations to drive and influence opportunities on Land divested to 3.8+ country. Indigenous Corporations MILLION HECTARES Created every year This RILSS has been developed with your input. On behalf of the ILSC Board, I thank all through ILSC projects of you who made the time to participate in consultation sessions – your insights have informed the detail of this strategy. We will continue the conversation around the ILSC’s role nationally and in the Northern region by refreshing both the NILSS and RILSS in 2020. Please take the time to read through this regional strategy and the national strategy * Indigenous Business it accompanies. Also check the ILSC website and follow us on social media. Most that benefit from * importantly, contact your local ILSC office with any ideas you have for projects that fit 55.5 with this strategy and would benefit from ILSC partnership. INCREASED ILSC assistance 50% INCOME PARTNER PROJECTS We look forward to working with you. Eddie Fry, ILSC Chair * Percentage of 43 collaborative EXPANDED ILSC projects *Average, per year since 2012 2 | INDIGENOUS LAND AND Sea Corporation (ILSC) REGIONAL INDIGENOUS LAND AND Sea StrategY (Northern Australia) | 3 We buy and divest land and water-related rights to Indigenous people We support Indigenous people to preserve and OUR protect culture through connection to country We build the capacity and capability of Indigenous people to sustainably manage and protect country INTRODUCTION ROLE We partner with Indigenous people to drive and The Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation influence opportunities for their country (ILSC) is an independent statutory authority established under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Act 2005 (the ATSI Act) to assist Indigenous people to acquire and manage interests in land and waters to achieve economic, environmental, social or cultural benefits. The ILSC has two purposes, as set out in the ATSI Act: > to assist Indigenous Australians to providing funding associated acquire land and water-related rights We invest in projects: with buying, divesting, managing and/or developing > to assist in the management of land/water interests and/or foundation projects (such Indigenous-held land and waters, however it was acquired. OUR as infrastructure, plant and equipment, feasibility assessment planning activities) This gives the ILSC an important role in We provide advice and capability support: working with Indigenous people to define, OPERATIONS Supporting Indigenous land holders with access to enhance, and grow the Indigenous Estate. information, training, knowledge and systems to The Indigenous Estate is a central concept in support sustainable management of country the strategy of the ILSC that encompasses and delivery of benefits both tangible and intangible assets and attributes relating to Aboriginal and Torres We connect Indigenous landowners: build and broker Strait Islander people. It includes interests relationships with markets, opportunities, partnerships in land, waters and economic development, through facilitation, advocacy and negotiation and also complex human capital elements, including people, society, knowledge and intellectual property flowing from Indigenous Australians’ unique culture. OUR Indigenous people enjoy opportunities and benefits IMPACT that the return of country, and its management brings 4 | INDIGENOUS LAND AND Sea Corporation (ILSC) REGIONAL INDIGENOUS LAND AND Sea StrategY (Northern Australia) | 5 AbOUT THE RILSS The following regions will continue to underpin the RILSS: Also required by the ATSI Act are Regional > Northern Australia—Includes northern Indigenous Land and Sea Strategies (RILSS), Western Australia, the northern areas which provide regions within Australia with of the Northern Territory and North an additional, layered framework for the Queensland. The climate, environment interpretation and implementation of the and general economic development NILSS. opportunities in northern Australia In this iteration of the NILSS and RILSS, the differ significantly from the rest of RILSS will contain more detailed information Australia. For example, savanna burning on what the ILSC’s strategic direction means for emissions reduction is viable in this for Indigenous corporations. They describe broad region and not in others. how the ILSC wants to deliver its mandate to > Desert—Includes the desert regions achieve economic, environmental, social and of Western Australia, northern South cultural benefits for Indigenous Australians Australia, south-west Queensland and over the coming years. north-west New South Wales. As with the Northern Australia region, Australia’s desert regions are unique. There is value RILSS REGIONS in considering the opportunities arising in these areas in their own right. In developing the previous NILS, the > South-West Australia—Includes southern ILSC changed its approach to ‘regions’. Australia, west from the South Australian Previously the regions were the six states border through to Perth and Geraldton (with NSW incorporating the ACT) and in Western Australia. This region has the Northern Territory. The new regions, diverse opportunities in agriculture, continued in these NILSS and RILSS, reflect resource extraction and urban-based important environmental, demographic and industries. economic differences across the continent > South-East Australia—Includes southern and the ways these are reflected in the LEGISLATIVE REFORM AbOUT THE NATIONAL Australia, east of Ceduna in South different situations of, and opportunities for Australia and including all of Victoria INDIGENOUS LAND AND Indigenous people. After receiving independent expert advice and Tasmania, most of New South Wales on options to improve the sustainability and SEA STRATEGY AND The ILSC recognises the opportunities and south-east Queensland including growth of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait REGIONAL INDIGENOUS presented through bringing together Brisbane. The mostly temperate regions Islander Land Account (Land Account), LAND AND SEA STRATEGIES discrete, but aligned, land parcels and water of south-eastern Australia are more significant consultations were undertaken interests within the Indigenous Estate to heavily populated and urbanised than across Australia on two key reforms to the The National Indigenous Land and Sea allow the development of joined-up projects, the other regions, with more intensive ILSC’s legislation, the ATSI Act: Strategy (NILSS) is a requirement under and economies of scale. and diverse agricultural operations and greater employment and training > To help secure the sustainability of the ATSI Act and is the ILSC’s key policy The ILSC also recognises that the new the Land Account by handing its document. The recently developed NILSS is opportunities in professional and service regions do not necessarily align with cultural industries. management to the Future Fund and the ILSC’s first national strategy to include and/or language groups, an issue which was broadening its investment mandate; and fresh and salt water-based activities. raised during recent consultation on these > Extending the remit of the ILSC to This NILSS presents the ILSC’s priority strategies. These new boundaries are ‘soft The strategy for each of these regions include water. focus areas, program delivery mechanisms borders’ and as such are not intended to highlight the alignment between and renewed commitment to building Responses to the proposed reforms were preclude any group or project from being opportunities arising in these regions and enduring stakeholder relationships as a considered on the basis of their position in the ILSC’s focus areas. These strategies are overwhelmingly supportive, and a package framework for achieving the ILSC’s vision of relation to a regional ‘border’. The regions based on recent stakeholder consultation of three