31 August, 2014

Craig Britt is Yuwaalaraay man from Goodooga  and a Senior LALC Support Officer at the NSWALC Western Zone office in Dubbo.

I’m from the Mason/Gibbs family from Goodooga and started working with NSWALC in July 1990, just ticking over 24 years now.

I started in farm management and moved on to rural properties, then admin and now I’m a Senior LALC Support Officer. I work closely with LALCs on capacity development, compliance training and board elections.

All of my work is important but the most satisfying is the capacity development and training, developing tools and support systems to assist LALC’s with day to day functions, trying to simplify reporting requirements and their day to day workloads.

I spend a lot of time on the road getting around to LALCs. I remember the first time I travelled to Tibooburra, by car, to visit the LALC. It was an 8 hour trip to Broken Hill; then a further 3 hours to Tibooburra, didn’t think I was ever going to make it.

I’ve seen a lot of things change. There’s been many achievements within the network. I think that the requirement for companies to survey land within LALC boundaries for artifacts or ancestral remains prior to disturbing soil is one of the bigger achievements . This sort of protection of our culture and heritage is of importance to all Aboriginal people.

It’s important to get involved in the network to keep going what our elders both past and present have fought for.

Their achievements along with recent achievements need to keep going into the future. We must commit and help the next generations of leaders get ready to keep land rights going forward.

What we do now is as significant as what has already been done so that Land Rights remains in place forever.