of understanding within and between communities. Another reason is that anyone with experience in native title will struggle to speak meaningfully about it in a short space of time, as the determination alone might have taken a decade or two to achieve. That is before the post‑determination era is discussed, let alone the compensation stages of any case. A third reason is that native title is a fraught and very raw topic for our families and communities. Existing conflicts have been exacerbated and new ones created by the native title system and claims process and, in some cases, these are proving very difficult to resolve. For these reasons, I wanted to elevate the voices of women with experience in native title in a separate dedicated report from Wiyi Yani U Thangani. This has enabled me and my team to create a picture of native title that starts with lived experience and looks outwards from there. This project has taken a human rights‑based approach which centres the people affected within the broader system in which native title operates. To be effective, any consideration of reform should, likewise, take a person-centred and holistic approach. None of the individual problems within the native title system can be considered or effectively reformed in a silo. 2.2 The promise of native title Like my predecessors who have detailed their recollections of the events that gave rise to the native title system, I too remember when Mabo (No. 2) was handed down and the subsequent passing of the Native Title Act. Those were momentous occasions and represented a point in history full of promise and excitement. Mabo (No. 2) overthrew the lie that had burdened us for so long – we were re-empowered by the mainstream Australian authorities’ acknowledgement that this country was always ours. The Native Title Act reinforced and broadened the public acknowledgement of this fact, and that it was a grave injustice that it was taken from us. At that time in the early 1990s, I was at the Kimberley Land Council. As a collective we felt suddenly energised and propelled into getting strategic as a nation and a region. We viewed native title as a foundational element of land justice to be used in negotiations and agreements. Sadly, we came to find that the nation had yet to grapple with the power shift required to make native title, as now framed through the Native Title Act and common law, compliant with Australia’s human rights obligations. The stories told in this Report reinforce warnings by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders since the Native Title Act was passed and the first cases were determined, that a just land settlement will not be delivered by native title as we know it – at least not on a wide scale.2 Yet despite our awareness of the political realities that restrain native title, the momentum and enthusiasm that we felt has not dissipated. We see that in the ways that First Nations peoples continue to negotiate the use of native title and land rights more broadly to empower our peoples. So, while native title is not what it could have been – what it should have been – from my experience in community and from the stories I have heard through this Report process, native title still matters. The concept of recognition in native title is important to our peoples, as is our irrepressible optimism that a more fulsome realisation of our native title rights might eventually become a reality. 8 Women in Native Title: Native Title Report 2024