"Destiny in our hands’: the Indigenous Australians joining the renewable energy transition" 20 July 2024

“We’ve always said we want the destiny in our hands,” says [Jamie] Woods, the chair of the Nari Nari Tribal Council and land manager of Gayini...

In surrounding regional towns, he speaks of Indigenous-led social programs to divert teenagers from entering the youth justice system, or to counter stubborn rates of suicide – particularly high among First Nations people....

Now, moving “at the pace of trust” with the windfarm developer Kilara Energy, Woods says the revenue from hosting turbines on the land may help those plans be fully realised....

After years of negotiations, the NNTC has entered into an equity agreement with Kilara Energy, which is preparing an environmental impact statement of a 74-turbine windfarm on land that extends across Gayini’s southern boundary....

Like any landowner the NNTC would receive turbine rental payments, said to be about $40,000 per turbine annually. But unlike conventional agreements, the NNTC will also share a stake – and a say – in the development....

“We drew a line in the sand and decided we want to be in the driving seat for anything that is to be done on our managed lands,” Woods says...

Prof Heidi Norman, a Gomeroi woman and researcher at the University of New South Wales, agrees. “Aboriginal people have never been big actors or beneficiaries, or been able to exercise agency,” she says. “Here is a new moment where … real economic benefits could be advanced.”...

According to the climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, just 1% of renewable energy projects in Australia involve some form of First Nations equity....

In June Bowen said the transition will have failed “if First Nations people aren’t at the centre of it”.