Traditional recovery

Scrymgour eyes opportunities

THE NT’s post-coronavirus recovery will present new opportunities for business enterprises on Aboriginal land in partnership with traditional owners, the head of the Northern Land Council has said.

In an exclusive column for the Sunday Territorian, NLC chief executive Marion Scrymgour argues “now is the time to turn our attention to recovery from the disruption to our lives”.

“We can build on partnerships established as part of the COVID-19 emergency, and it may be time to refresh some of the business plans of enterprises on Aboriginal land,” she said.

“There are potential opportunities in a number of areas – tourism, agriculture, fisheries, pastoral operations, mining and the energy sector.”

Ms Scrymgour said traditional owners were keen to address “administrative blockages” to increase business partnerships, but warned it must not come at the expense of traditional owners’ rights to defer projects until they could give “informed consent”.

“For those who are contemplating new initiatives on Aboriginal land, talk to us at the earliest stage you can,” she said. “The sooner we get together on new ideas, the sooner we can start providing information to traditional owners and native title holders, enabling them to make good decisions.

“It is critically important to the futures of all Territorians that our Aboriginal families are all connected and benefiting from economic activity on Aboriginal land, including in the form of long-term jobs and the opportunity to grow our own businesses.”

Ms Scrymgour said while the NLC welcomed the Territory Economic Reconstruction Commission report, there remained “a number of issues which need addressing”.