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Interviewee story summaries
Cassie suggested in circumstances where the relationship between the NTRB/NTSP and the
client is tense, it would be in the best interests of native title claimants and groups if the model
looked more like the NTRBs as community liaison between a native title litigator from the
private sector and the local community.
Cassie also talked about her work mapping traditional boundaries in the Torres Strait. She
engaged in this work to ensure authorisation processes are clear and easy to follow. Cassie
described how the traditional decision-making processes are a ‘rolling thing’; and it can require
additional accommodations to facilitate those traditional decision-making processes. But Cassie
described how the long-term consequences of not taking the time and making the effort to
consult the right people are community disharmony and wasted resources. For example, houses
that no one can live in because the land belongs to one family, but the houses are allocated by
government to other families.
Australian Human Rights Commission
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