First Nations native title workshop and national capacity building

On 17 and 18 September, Louise Allwood from the Centre for Native Title Anthropology (CNTA) co-hosted a native title professional development workshop with Dr Tahnee Innes from James Cook University (JCU). Dr Innes is a Yawuru native title holder from Broome and a lecturer in anthropology at JCU Cairns Campus, which is located on the Country of the Yirrganydji People of the Djabugay Nation. The First Nations participants who came from native title organisations across Australia were either anthropologists or work closely with anthropologists in their roles.

The workshop aimed to support First Nations people working in native title through presentations, discussions and activities which explored native title anthropological research requirements, collaborative fieldwork practices, communicating research and community expectations, repatriation of research materials, the changing practice of native title research, including compensation research, and Dr Innes spoke about her experiences as a First Nations native title anthropologist. The participants had opportunities to network, strengthening the community of native title practitioners.

The CNTA also participates in the Strategic Issues Native Title Action Group (SINTAG), a national committee comprised of representatives from the National Native Title Tribunal, the Federal Court of Australia, the National Native Title Council, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, The Mabo Centre, the Attorney General’s Department, and the National Indigenous Australians Agency. Established in November 2025, SINTAG aims to address systemic issues in the native title sector. We are currently developing initiatives aimed at addressing the shortfall of anthropologists and other professionals working in the sector. The initiatives are centred on the education, recruitment and retention of native title practitioners, including increasing the number of First Nations practitioners across the sector.

The CNTA is located within the School of Social Science and is managed by Louise Allwood and co-directed by Dr Richard Martin, Dr Kim de Rijke and Wendy Asche. The CNTA website is located at https://cnta.org.au.

Written by: Louise Allwood – Research Manager, Centre for Native Title Anthropology (CNTA).