Traditional Owners near Canteen Creek in the Northern Territory will gather to celebrate the handback of Country on Wednesday, 45 years on from when they first lodged their land claim.
The long-standing Wakaya Alyawarre (Repeat) Land claim was finalised late last year, with the Governor-General signing a deed of grant to the Wakaya-Alyawarre Aboriginal land trust in February.
Last year, Eileen Bonney, the only surviving senior member of the original land rights claim group from 1980, said she was happy the resolution to the claim occurred "while I'm still living".
This week, she will finally see the handback ceremony on her family's homeland, just north of Canteen Creek.
"I'm feeling happy to get this title. I waited a long time when I was young. I kept talking and kept fighting until I got old. And now it's going to happen," Ms Bonney said.
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The Central Land Council (CLC) first lodged the original Wakaya-Alyawarre Land Claim 42 in 1980.
Since the first claim was lodged, Traditional Owners have won back two parcels of the original claim area whilst agreeing to withdraw the Canteen Creek township area from the rest.
The amendment to the Northern Territory's Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976 (Land Rights Act) will allow Traditional Owners to be granted more than 484,000 hectares of land, located approximately 275km south-east of Tennant Creek.
Central Land Council chief executive Les Turner said the handback "honours the determination and strength of the traditional owners who never gave up on their claim".
"It's a moment to celebrate and reflect on the sacrifices of those who didn't live to see this day," Mr Turner said.
"We recognise their legacy and the leadership of the families who have carried this claim forward."
Minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, will be on Country on Wednesday to present a framed copy of the title deed to the Traditional Owners and officially hand back the land to its rightful owners.
In presenting the deed to the Governor-General in February, Senator McCarthy said it was her "great pleasure to present for your signature the deed of grant to Wakaya Alyawarre Aboriginal land trust".
"This instrument progresses an unresolved land claim in the Northern Territory that was first lodged in 1980 and was prepared as a consequence of an amendment to the 1976 Aboriginal Land Rights Act," she said.
Traditional owners will celebrate the occasion by performing a traditional dance and cutting of a cake.
The Wakaya-Alyawarre (Repeat) land claim is one of the CLC's last two outstanding claims under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act, with the Land Council having now won back more than half of the land in the southern NT for Traditional Owners.
Speaking last year after the announcement, Ms Bonney said she was looking forward to the handback ceremony.
"The traditional owners all wanted to get this done for a long time," she said.
"Too many of us have died waiting for this day."
