The sight of 50 little campfires dotted across the Cundeelee landscape in late spring 2023 certainly added to the meaning and significance of the ‘on-Country’ events taking place in the following days. Hundreds more people would be joining the campers in the morning for not one, but two native title determinations in two days.

The evening before the Upurli Upurli Nguratja determination held on 28 November 2023 was a celebration of homecoming and community coming together. The campfires added a bit of extra warmth to that already generated from the reunions, as the rising full moon beamed like blue daylight across the community.

The calmness of the evening gave no hint of the intense activity of the previous days and months that had brought everyone back to Cundeelee. Months of consulting, budgeting, planning, logistics and tech requirements, checking weather events, site viability, stakeholder liaison, scheduling, equipment sourcing, and more.

A core team of Central Desert staff had travelled out the day before from Perth to Kalgoorlie, then made the cross-country drive, in convoys with trailers of equipment and supplies to stay out bush. Yet hundreds more whose country we were camping on had travelled much further - 600km one way from Tjuntjunjara, and further east with the help of Oak Valley Community in South Australia.

The teamwork across corporations had already begun weeks before the main event. Driving in on the winding sand road to the old Cundeelee community, the Central Desert convoy was met with the warmest welcome from Pila Nguru Aboriginal Corporation. They were integral to getting the most important people to Cundeelee - the claimants, travelling from and through Tjuntjunjara, along with getting campers set up and settled.

This freed up Central Desert’s team to embark on the set up for the main show. This involved scoping the set-up of the main event site, thanks to having a full tool kit of correct equipment for the terrain to erect marquees and tents, get food prepped and prepackaged, run sheet checks, media preparation, safety checks, the list goes on.

“By having someone else organise it all, it took the load off the directors. We knew with Central Desert it would all be done. It was done very quietly, and very respectfully, respect for our elders,” Ms McGinty said.

“We didn’t need to do anything. We had all the time to relax, be at peace and reconnect with all the families.”

As the blue light of the moon faded to be overtaken by the warm glow of sunrise, so too did the sounds of dawn chatter, the shuffle of feet across gravel and the clanging of camping pots and pans. In only a few hours convoys of cars would be arriving filled with more families coming home, plus Government and the Federal Court representatives.

Many years of coordinating and running events - from determinations, to AGMs, large consultations, and strategic planning - across remote communities and country has taught Central Desert of the advantages of being mobile and camping out. It’s not just to be ahead of the schedule. There was still plenty more to arrange before the “cameras rolled”, literally, with event streaming and media attending.

In addition to the main event, there is the very important job of ensuring people can get home – the 1200km and more journey east again. But with no fuel stops between Tjuntjunjara and Cundeelee a solution was needed. Here’s where stakeholder relationships come to play, with the help of IGO Limited who work on Upurli Upurli Nguratja country, providing fuel for the drive home.

“At IGO we are always happy to help communities we operate in where we can, particularly when it is something that we have the skills and resources for i.e. remote area movement and logistics. When we received the request from Central Desert it was an easy decision to support and just a matter of making it happen which we were glad to do,” Adrian Murphy, Manager Land Access, IGO Limited said.

At the end of a few hours, all that was set up, was reversed – packed up, but not completely, as there was still another event to travel out for at another location the following day. Another key to event work - make it smooth and discrete for your clients.

 “There was so much work done that we wouldn’t even have known about, the schedules, the food, fuel…and it ran so smoothly. I don’t know that it would work without Central Desert. You’ve given us something that we will remember for the rest of our lives,” Ms McGinty said.

For more information on the Upurli Upurli Nguratja native title consent determination, see the Media Release here.

Thank you to Upurli Upurli Nguratja Aboriginal Corporation for collaborating on this story.