2 Social Justice Commissioner’s foreword It is with great pleasure that I present the Women in Native Title: Native Title Report 2024 (the Report) as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner. One of my primary functions as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner is to report on the impact of the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) (Native Title Act) on the exercise and enjoyment of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ human rights. As this is the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner’s function, I will use the first person throughout this Report. 2.1 Connection to Wiyi Yani U Thangani The key contributions I have made as Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner have been through the Wiyi Yani U Thangani (Women’s Voices) Project, a multi-year systemic change project which has spanned the full length of my seven-year term from 2017 to 2024. This Report, on the experiences of women in the native title system, is in many ways an extension of my Wiyi Yani U Thangani work. The topics of native title and land justice more broadly have been raised with me throughout my term and have been a part of my discussions with First Nations women from the beginning of Wiyi Yani U Thangani through to the present. These subjects feature prominently in the Wiyi Yani U Thangani Report ‘Land and Country’ chapter, but this is far from the only point of intersection. Native title and the related systems cannot be separated from the key human rights discussed so extensively in Wiyi Yani U Thangani – such as the rights to self‑determination and culture. Nor can our rights to self‑determination and culture be separated from our rights to health, education, housing, and other basic rights.1 Land justice also features in the Wiyi Yani U Thangani Implementation Framework and Wiyi Yani U Thangani Change Agenda which was launched on the 19 March 2024, along with the First Nations Gender Justice Institute at the Australian National University. Analysis of the data from the Wiyi Yani U Thangani engagements makes clear that native title is a difficult topic to talk about in any detail in a group environment. One reason for this is that it is technically complex with widely varying levels Australian Human Rights Commission 7

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