The Cultural Heritage Reform: Does the proposed model reflect the United Nations declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples?

Abstract

Reform of the cultural heritage system in New South Wales ('NSW') is well overdue. The National Parks and Wildlife Service has had formal responsibility for Aboriginal cultural heritage since the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 (NSW). Yet over 30 years ago, in 1980, a Parliamentary Select Committee report recommended a standalone Aboriginal Heritage Commission be established. This view was reiterated in 1989 in a report of the Ministerial Task Force on Aboriginal Heritage and Culture.1 But since then nothing more than a cultural heritage advisory body has been created, and although its members have no doubt worked hard to protect Aboriginal cultural heritage, the whole system needs fundamental change. In the meantime, destruction of Aboriginal cultural heritage in NSW has proceeded apace and calls for reform have amplified in recent years.