8 Interviewee story summaries Sarah was particularly frustrated at the way another tribe has been able to utilise the evidence of the Kunggandji to build their own claim over Kunggandji Country. In 2018, Sarah’s group and the other claimants agreed to negotiate a Protocol Deed which set out a process with a mediator who would provide a final report which the parties would be bound by. Sarah described how the process was initiated by a Registrar, whom she felt was the only official who understood that her group had real grievances. This was the one time in the native title process that Sarah’s group received funding – required by the court so that they could properly participate in the negotiations. However, despite being advised against it by her lawyer in that Protocol Deed negotiation process, Sarah agreed to Justice Dowsett being appointed the ‘referee’ because she ‘thought he would be inclined to correct his prior incorrect findings’ from the 2012 determination. Sarah realised after the process that her lawyer was right, and Justice Dowsett had ‘doubled down’, issuing the Referee’s Report with essentially the same incorrect findings of fact as his earlier determination. According to Sarah, one of the key issues with the way the evidence was interpreted by the court was the acceptance of the proposition that there was a patriclan, and the corollary that women didn’t have rights. Sarah was insistent that this is incorrect and that traditionally, women also had rights associated with Country. Sarah feels the legal system, including lawyers and judges, is illequipped to appropriately deal with the complexities and nuances of traditional laws and customs and traditional tribal boundaries (which are different to historical colonial government boundaries). Sarah explained how she had itemised and produced several pieces of written historical evidence supporting the oral history that the Kunggandji people alone are the Traditional Owners of the Cairns area, and that the other groups came to the area later and were permitted to stay but were not given traditional owner rights. Nonetheless, Sarah has been unable to have a native title claim accepted because of the original evidence which she claims to be erroneous. Sarah described some wins for her efforts – using the written records from her research at the State Library, she was able to show that the Yirrigandji people were not Traditional Owners of the Cairns area and had them removed as native title claimants. The impact of not being able to register a native title claim has been that Sarah’s family have no cultural heritage consultation rights over their Country because of the link between the two pieces of legislation. Sarah described how devastating it has been for her and especially her Elders to see important places destroyed while those purporting to speak for Country do not seem to care. The personal impact of her native title work over the last 10 years has been significant: I suffered everything, me and my children. We had nothing, you know, because my children were used to me making a good salary. To go to nothing … they were even arguing with me – ‘go back to work, you need to leave the land’. But you know they’re kids … Now they’re seeing why this fight is important, because they’ve grown up with it and learnt a lot from it. At the time of her original interview, Sarah said she had appealed the latest decision of the NTRB not to fund their claim as a respondent under section 203FB of the Native Title Act and was waiting for a decision from the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA). In late December 2021, Sarah’s most recent application to join the native title claim of other groups over her country was rejected by the Court on technical grounds. She expressed desperation – she feels she is out of her depth and really needs a lawyer. However, at that point, she had still been unable to find one who could provide assistance pro bono. Australian Human Rights Commission 87