I found this process extremely treacherous and littered with levels of lateral violence that I have never experienced before. The world of native title opened up an experience that I never ever want to endure. I have had to place my career on hold to coordinate my family groups, and community to succeed with native title applications from the registration process through to consent determination. Native title is oppressive and it’s not land rights. There are a lot of strong Aboriginal women involved in native title however their voices are not always heard because of the patriarchal nature of the broader legal system and the historical anthropological studies often failed to appreciate the role of Aboriginal women. Women have to fight for equal say when making decisions. History and conditioning by previous governments have been to approach men and ignore the women. The younger generation of men have this approach that they are the bosses therefore are decision makers. Much of our meeting in the early days was spent talking about how men and women have key roles and are equal. The native title system is a complete failure for our Country, our Elders and our future generations. Over the years I have been a witness to the destruction, dismantle, protocols and lore be broken by non-Indigenous professional lead as well as Indigenous people. My community has been divided and conquered. We are fighting amongst each other, native title has caused so much trauma to my community … Native title has made it hard for myself and siblings as we sit on the fence with anxiety, fear, paranoid of which family is going to be hurt. 38 Women in Native Title: Native Title Report 2024 I have a good understanding of my culture, but I don’t have an understanding of this system. If we get up and say that something is wrong or that what they’re saying is wrong, then we’re seen as angry black women. And people don’t ever want to listen to angry black women, they just ignore us. Stop listening…. At the end of the day, they give us native title, but everything is prepared by white people, everything is decided in this book that only white people say is now the rules for who is from this country and what is important to us. Just white people that don’t know anything about real culture. It doesn’t recognise heritage, culture, our spiritual being. In the end, native title is just another label for us. It’s a dog tag. Like we used to have.