8 8.8 Interviewee story summaries Leanne Edwards, QLD Leanne Edwards is a Gkuthaarn woman from the Gulf of Carpentaria, and a member of the Gkuthaarn and Kukatj native title group. Their native title claim (the GK claim) was originally lodged in 2012 and finally determined on 29 September 2020.73 Between 2012–2020, Leanne was involved in the GK claim. For much of that time, Leanne and her husband lived on and managed the remote Delta Downs station. In her interview, Leanne described how it was hard to give so much time to the native title claim while also working more hours than a full-time job. But the claim was important to Leanne, and she did her best. Leanne specifically mentioned that her group’s lawyer helped her participate by travelling from Normanton out to the station to get information from her, which made her participation easier. Despite accommodations by their lawyer, Leanne found that the demanding nature of native title processes and the way the anthropologist conducted the research for the case still limited her ability to participate. For example, Leanne said she was unable to attend all claim group meetings due to work, and she felt that the evidence gathered by the anthropologist for her group’s claim was lacking and inaccurate. During the claim process, the NTRB combined three claims, including the Gkuthaarn claim, into one. Leanne described how this meant that the Gkuthaarn claimants were forced to use the same anthropologist as the other claimant groups, despite concerns from Leanne and others that the shared anthropologist knew less about the Gkuthaarn people. Initially, Leanne explained that she felt broadly positive about their native title outcome: the Gkuthaarn people had achieved native title over some of their land. However, as the interview progressed, it became clear that the southern section of the original claim area, which was removed from the claim in order to secure the rest of the determination, was actually very important to Leanne and her group. Leanne said that they felt sadness, frustration and anger about not having their connection to that part of their country recognised. Leanne specifically explained that she understood that excising the southern area was considered a necessary compromise to get back on Country and secure the determination over the rest of the land – Leanne understood the difficulty her people faced in proving connection to the southern area was because her people had been dispossessed, and their access to Country had subsequently been restricted. But it was a ‘hard pill to swallow’. Credit: Michael Leunig Australian Human Rights Commission 81