Ron Merkel discusses the importance of native title, 2008

Transcript of interview

Native title, for anyone that understands Aboriginal culture and tradition, is the very foundation of Aboriginal identity. A traditional Aboriginal community draws all its identity, all that it stands for, from that connection with land. When they're born they're connected to land. When they die, they go back to land. Their connection to country determines all of their cultural traditions, all of their associations, so it's so intrinsic to their identity that without it, they're like nothing.

And so for Australian law to give recognition to that aspect of Aboriginal culture is a giving back to the people from what we had taken from them, namely their land and their connection and their identity, so it is very important for those communities that can establish it, and I don't think one can ever overstate the importance that they attach to it, and it's an understandable importance.

They honestly believe and pursue native title because they think that that connection is able to be established. When it doesn't meet a legal standard, it doesn't mean they don't have the connection. It just means that under Australian law, they haven't established that connection. But no matter how much you try and explain that, a lost native title case really is like 'the law and the Australian Government and society doesn't recognise my connection to land'.

That's very hurtful and that is often taken in a way that's very painful. That's the negative aspect. The positive aspect is that even the groups that have lost native title, by pursuing a claim in the courts, they've had to put together their histories, they've had to put together their traditions, and record them for the first time in a very comprehensive way. And that has given them a sense of cohesion and strength which they may not have otherwise had, but for the native title case. So even when they lose a case, it often means that they're much stronger as a community after the case than they ever were before it, and I think there are many examples of where that's happened in practice.