WiNTA participants highlighted that they had been contracted specifically to work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in collecting evidence, including recording women’s only sites. Further, participants reported that First Nations women were actively and critically involved in the preparation of genealogies. Our research participants noted many instances where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women had outstanding recall for genealogical information. In a dispute context, especially those involving controversy over who should be included or excluded in a claim group, these genealogies can be of critical importance. WiNTA Importantly, WiNTA also noted that participants reported that where First Nations women had been employed in community liaison-type roles in NTRBs/SPs, they ‘were key to the successful management of the relationship between the NTRB/NTSP and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander claimants’. NTSCORP submitted that the cultural heritage system in NSW does not adequately protect Aboriginal cultural heritage for a number of reasons, including native title holders not being given their exclusive consultation rights. NTSCORP specifically notes that the protection of women’s sites suffers from the following: ƒ Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Reports prepared by non-Aboriginal archaeologists include images and descriptions of Aboriginal objects or sites which are women’s sites which men should not see ƒ proponents often only offer one position for site officer or Aboriginal Cultural Heritage monitor which does not allow for appropriate representation when visiting women’s or men’s sites ƒ proponents often only have male archaeologists or staff, creating culturally inappropriate circumstances when visiting or recording women’s sites or objects. (b) Access to participation i. Conflict and lateral violence Both WiNTA and FNLRS specifically noted that the high levels of conflict and lateral violence generated by the native title processes is a significant cause of the underrepresentation of women (and young people) in native title. WiNTA also noted that there are situations in which gendered power dynamics of native title group meetings limited women’s capacity to contribute, for fear of retaliation by male claimants, including their own relatives and kin. The NTSCORP submission identified a list of specific circumstances within the native title processes that create situations of conflict within native title groups, resulting in lateral violence, including: ƒ the uniform decision-making requirements of s 251A and s 251B of the Native Title Act ƒ ‘foreign’ requirements to describe boundaries and claim group membership within the construct of native title law ƒ requirements that native title groups negotiate with Local Aboriginal Land Councils in order to use s 47A of the Native Title Act (to disregard prior extinguishment) when the extinguishing act was a transfer of Crown Land under an Aboriginal Land Agreement made pursuant to the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 (NSW) ƒ proof of connection requirements in the historical context of dispossession ƒ behaviours of governments and proponents who seek to circumvent the engagement processes agreed amongst a native title claim group 54 Women in Native Title: Native Title Report 2024