Katiti Aboriginal Land Trust facts for kids
The Katiti Aboriginal Land Trust (Katiti ALT) is a special group that holds land for Aboriginal people. This land is in the southwest part of the Northern Territory in Australia. It's located near a place called Petermann. This land trust was created in 1980 after a process called the Katiti Land Claim. The land is officially known as Northern Territory Portion 1818.
The people who own this land trust are from the Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara, and Luritja communities. The Katiti ALT land is next to the larger Petermann Land Trust and Uluṟu–Kata Tjuṯa National Park to the north and west. To the east and south, it borders two large farms called pastoral stations: Curtin Springs and Mulga Park. The town of Yulara is not part of these Land Trusts. It sits between the Katiti land and Uluṟu–Kata Tjuṯa National Park.
The trust gets its name from Katiti, which means Bobbie's Well. This is a natural spring about 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) south of Lake Amadeus. Two explorers, Baldwin Spencer and Francis James Gillen, first wrote about this spring. They visited it in 1894 on their way to Uluṟu. They recorded its name as "Kurtitina," which is more correctly Katitinya. Another group looking for minerals, led by Lawrence Wells, visited the spring in 1903. Later, Herbert Basedow marked it on his maps as "Curtyteena".
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How the Katiti Land Trust Began
Land Before the Trust
Before the 1970s, the land now held by the Katiti ALT was considered "crown land" by the government. This meant the government owned it. In 1920, the area to the southwest was set aside as an Aboriginal reservation. In 1958, the land around Uluṟu and Kata Tjuṯa became the Ayers Rock–Mt Olga National Park. However, the Katiti block was seen as unused land.
The Aboriginal Land Rights Act
In 1976, the Australian Federal Government passed an important law. It was called the Aboriginal Land Rights Act. This law allowed Aboriginal communities to claim ownership of unused land. If they could show they had a historical connection to the land, they could get full ownership, known as freehold title. Section 4 of this law gave the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs the power to create Land Trusts. These trusts would then look after the land titles for Aboriginal people.
The Katiti Land Claim
The Katiti Land Claim was officially made in 1979. The claim asked for a larger area than what the Trust owns today. It even included the Ayers Rock–Mt Olga National Park. The Central Land Council submitted the claim for hundreds of people. Most of these people lived at Muṯitjulu.
On September 30, 1980, the people were granted legal ownership of the land now held by the Katiti ALT. They did not get the title to Ayers Rock–Mt Olga. This was because it was already a national park. However, they were recognized as the park's traditional owners, or nguraṟitja.
Two other areas were also not included in the land grant. One was a 104 km2 (40 sq mi) area around the tourist town of Yulara. The other was a 3 km2 (1.2 sq mi) area covering the Petermann Road. This road was used by tourists to reach Uluṟu.
Changes Over Time
The Petermann Road was later replaced by the Lasseter Highway. On February 23, 1990, the government gave the title to the old road to the Katiti ALT. Legal ownership of the national park's land was eventually given to its traditional owners in 1985. The Uluṟu–Kata Tjuṯa Aboriginal Land Trust now holds the title to this area. The ownership of the Yulara area was part of a court case that finished in 2006.
