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This appendix provides an overview of the main events with regard to the administration of Indigenous affairs to 30 June 2006. It commences with a summary table and is followed by a detailed description of each event.

a) Ngaanyatjarra Regional Partnership Agreement. b) Murdi Paaki Regional Assembly c) Post-ATSIC regional representation for Torres Strait Islanders on the mainland

During the reporting period, Australian governments continued to develop tenure reform policies for Indigenous land. Governments frequently describe these policies as a means of promoting home ownership and economic development on Indigenous land. The reality is not so simple.

In September 2002, the South Australian Coroner brought down his findings in the inquests into the deaths of Kunmanara[1] Ken (who died on 3 August 1999), Kunmanara Hunt (who died on 27 January 2001) and Kunmanara Thompson (who died on 26 June 2001). Each of these young Anangu was a chronic petrol sniffer (they had been sniffing for at least ten years) in their mid to late twenties living on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Lands (AP Lands). All three were found to have died as a result of inhalation of petrol fumes.[2]

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) was established in 1990 by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission Act 1989 (Cth). The Act made provisions for the establishment of 35 representative Regional Councils on behalf of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Australia.