Yawuru company keeps up pace after turning one

Australia’S largest native title settlement turned one last month, however for the Yawuru people’s representative body it is not a time to rest on their laurels.

The deal, worth almost $200 million, covering more than 5000sqkm around the Broome townsite was signed with the State Government in February 2010 and was hailed as a beginning of a new era for Broome by Yawuru leader Professor Patrick Dodson.

In the 12 months since the signing, Nyamba Buru Yawuru has been in overdrive laying the building blocks to manage the commercial interests of the Yawuru people while striking a balance to nurture Yawuru culture, heritage and language.

Nyamba Buru Yawuru chief executive Peter Yu said the registration of the second of two indigenous land use agreements with the State Government in August sparked the beginning of being fully operational for the company, however things really started gathering pace in the past two months.

“We’re now in a position where we can start to look at particular types of programs and developments and that’s only taken us since August,” he said.

“I think from the performance point of view we’ve done very well.”

Apart from the development of large tracts of land around Broome, which were partially approved by Broome Shire late last year, Nyamba Buru Yawuru has four major projects which are the focus of much of the company’s energy.

The Yawuru ranger program, jointly managed with Broome Shire and the Department of Environment currently employs six Yawuru people in land management positions with the aim of keeping watch over reserves created by the native title agreement.

Mr Yu said the language revitalisation strategy involved working with elders to keep the integrity of the Yawuru language alive.

“We want to sustain our language and not only sustain it, but reinvigorate it to the extent that we have more people speaking it,” he said.

A workshop will also create a map of Broome overlayed with cultural sites.