The Treaty Commission commenced operation in March 2019. Over its three year life, the Treaty Commission consulted with Aboriginal people across the Northern Territory and conducted research to inform development of a framework for future treaty negotiations.
The Treaty Commissioner delivered an Interim Report in March 2020 and a detailed Discussion Paper on June 2020. A Final Report to the Minister for Treaty and Local Decision Making on the outcomes of the consultations and recommendations for the framework was delivered on 29 June 2022.
The Acting Treaty Commissioner guided the process of completing the Final Report and handed this to the Minister for Treaty and Local Decision Making, the Honourable Selena Uibo MLA.
Minister Uibo tabled the Final Report in Parliament on 26 July 2022.
The Northern Territory Government provided its response to the Final Report on 29 December 2022.
The work of the Treaty Commission is now complete. This page will no longer be updated.
Next steps in the treaty process will be progressed by the Treaty Unit within the Department of the Chief Minister’s Office of Aboriginal Affairs.
Extract from the Barunga Agreement 2018
At an historic meeting at the Barunga Festival in June 2018, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between the four Northern Territory Statutory Land Councils and the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory Government.
In the MOU, it was agreed that:
a) Aboriginal people, the First Nations, were the prior owners and occupiers of the land, seas and waters that are now called the Northern Territory of Australia.
b) The First Nations of the Northern Territory were self-governing in accordance with their traditional laws and customs; and that
c) First Nations peoples of the Northern Territory never ceded sovereignty of their lands, seas and waters.
It is also agreed there has been deep injustice done to the Aboriginal people of the Northern Territory, including violent dispossession, the repression of their languages and cultures, and the forcible removal of children from their families, which have left a legacy of trauma, and loss that needs to be addressed and healed.”
