Traditional Owners have gained recognition of a historically significant Native Title after a long legal battle.
Federal Court Chief Justice Debra Mortimer found on Thursday cultural rights had been recognised for five ancestral individuals linked to the Lama Lama People and the Umpila Peoples in far north Queensland.
The claim covers an area on the eastern side of Cape York Peninsula, southeast of Coen and north of Port Stewart.
Handing down her judgment, Justice Mortimer said the court decided it was not possible to describe the Country or the group who held the communal title as belonging to either the Lama Lama People and the Umpila Peoples.
After colonisation and tragedy such as forced removal of people from Country, the court found some Traditional Owners and families became more associated with either group.
"Those identities are now entrenched, but the situation in the disputed area traditionally for the apical ancestors was not like that," Justice Mortimer said.
Justice Mortimer said the ancestors and the Elders before them were sand beach people living in local clans connected to the disputed area through the operation of a common regional system of traditional law and custom.
"The facts do not clearly support tracing their identity from before colonisation to the present day only to Umpila people as recognised today or only to Lama Lama people as recognised today," she said.
"The facts show the picture was more mixed than that.
"Therefore, the only people in the present day that the court can be satisfied are connected to the disputed area by their traditional law and custom are the descendants of the five apical ancestors."
The five ancestors comprise of a mixture of Lama Lama People and the Umpila Peoples, the court heard.
"The court's conclusion means that the communal title is held only by this group of descendants," Justice Mortimer said.
Justice Mortimer added the wider groups described in both determinations will not be the Native Title holders for the disputed area.
The court will now move to focus on achieving a core objective of the justice system after a "long and difficult period of dispute".
Australian Associated Press
