On March 17 2021, CNTA Director Nicolas Peterson and Research Fellow Julie Finlayson attended a Forum for Native Title practitioners  held in Sydney by the NSW District Registry of the Federal Court. The purpose of the Forum was to continue ongoing discussions and developing best practice processes for the Native Title practice area in New South Wales. Anthropologists Jitendra Kumerage and David Martin also attended, and each gave a presentation; Jitendra as a member of a panel Connection: Meeting evidentiary standards for a consent determination, and David Martin a response to a presentation on anthropologists roles in Native Title proceedings.

Certain of the papers and presentations will be of direct interest not only to CNTA’s anthropologist constituency, but also to lawyers working in the Native Title area more generally, and not just in New South Wales.

These are:

Regarding access to  Court Expert and other reports and documents

• A PDF of a Powerpoint presentation Access to court documents in Native Title Litigation presented by Aaron Moss, a lawyer in Clayton Utz, which pays careful attention to the very important issue of the accessibility to Expert and Connection Reports  in Native Title matters;
• Speaking Notes by Aaron Moss for his presentation

Justice Mortimer’s proposals regarding the roles of anthropologists in Native Title proceedings, and responses to them.

• Re-evaluating the role of anthropologists in Native Title proceedings, presented by Justice Mortimer, which is a revised version of the paper she presented to the CNTA Annual Conference held in Brisbane in February, 2021.
• Comments on Justice Mortimer’s presentation at the CNTA Annual Conference, prepared by David Trigger.
• Observations on Justice Mortimer’s paper concerning the role of anthropologists in Native Title matters before the Court, prepared by David Martin, which is an updated version of the notes prepared in response to Justice Mortimer’s earlier paper at the CNTA Annual conference.