8.1 Daisy Tjuparntarri Ward, WA Daisy Tjuparntarri Ward is a Ngaanyatjarra woman and a Traditional Owner of the Pila Nature Reserve (formerly known as the Gibson Desert Nature Reserve) in WA. Daisy is a Director of Warnpurru (Aboriginal Corporation) RNTBC (Warnpurru) – the corporation which entered into the Gibson Desert Nature Reserve Compensation and Lurrtjurrlulu Palakitjalu Settlement Agreement (CLPSA) with the WA Government. Daisy was a lead negotiator in the Settlement Agreement. Warnpurru has been the PBC since Daisy and her people finally received a determination of native title on 15 June 2022. As one of the ‘last bush people’, Daisy’s ancestors have practiced traditional law and culture in the Western Desert for thousands of years. Daisy first saw non‑Indigenous people when she was around 5 years old. At this time in the 1960s, she and other members of her family were still living in the area practising their traditional law and culture. Her family still live on their traditional Country today. Daisy was interviewed on Country by Jan Turner, anthropologist, colleague and friend, in the company of other senior women who have also been part of the same native title journey. Daisy’s story told of the pain and confusion caused by repeated denial of native title and the very long, arduous process of finally securing that determination. Daisy told the story of the old people they had lost along the way; the heartbreak of so many setbacks; and of the struggle to understand what native title even meant. Daisy’s people were originally part of a bigger group of Western Desert claimants in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands native title claim.59 That negotiated claim resulted in a native title determination in 2005 for all the other groups except for Daisy’s. This was due to the 1977 creation of the Gibson Desert Nature Reserve which extinguished native title. In 2007, the Western Australian Government introduced the Indigenous Conservation Title Bill (ICT Bill). This followed extensive negotiations with Daisy and her people. The aim of the ICT Bill was to provide a new type of title over the Gibson Desert Nature Reserve as an alternative to the extinguished native title and thereby settle the state’s compensation liability under the Native Title Act. They had to do this as the Gibson Desert Nature Reserve was created postRacial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth).60 However, before this could happen the Government called an election and the ICT Bill lapsed. This left litigation as the only option. In opposing the Ward native title claim, the State of Western Australia discovered and relied on a 1921 petroleum tenement over an area of the claim. The decision in Ward v State of Western Australia (No 3) [2015] FCA 658 found that the grant of an oil licence extinguished the exclusive possession of native title rights before the Gibson Desert Nature Reserve was even established. It didn’t matter that the tenement was never used at all. Negotiations then ensued over the next 5 years. At a ceremony on Country on 29 October 2020, Daisy was one of the Traditional Owners who signed the CLPSA between the Traditional Owners of the Pila Nature Reserve (previously the Gibson Desert Nature Reserve, renamed as part of the CLPSA) and the Western Australian Government. The CLPSA runs for 10 years with a focus on joint management of the Pila Nature Reserve. Daisy described how that ceremony was a time of jubilation because it was a ‘win’, but at the same time she also felt that they still did not really have their Country back under their full control and custodianship. 60 Women in Native Title: Native Title Report 2024