The National Native Title Council
The National Native Title Council (NNTC) is the peak body for the native title sector and Traditional Owners.
The NNTC works to advance the rights and interests of Traditional Owners through strong advocacy, targeted networking and by providing opportunities to members to develop their professional skills to engage across the native title sector. Our approach is rights-based and is underpinned by best practice standards such as UNDRIP’s Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC).
The NNTC provides a national voice and platform to elevate and amplify the interests of our members and Traditional Owners more broadly.
The NNTC hosts the First Nations Heritage Protection Alliance (FNHPA) and the Sea Country Alliance (SCA). These two national Alliances work to ensure that that Traditional Owner voices are at the centre of decision making and to improve legislation, policy and practice around cultural heritage protection and sea country respectively.
First Nations Heritage Protection Alliance
The Alliance is a national coalition of organisations working to ensure the recognition, celebration and protection of our cultural heritage.
We have members from every Australian state and Territory including major Native Title, Land Rights, Traditional Owner, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community-Controlled Organisations.
In a historic meeting held on the 17 June 2020, following the shocking destruction of the sacred 46,000-year-old Juukan Gorge Caves in the Pilbara Western Australia, Aboriginal leaders from across Australia – representing Aboriginal Land Councils, Native Title Representative Bodies and Service Providers and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Controlled Organisations – expressed their outrage at the destruction vowing to pursue national reforms to prevent this from ever happening again.
A mandate was created to strengthen and modernise cultural heritage laws and to create industry reforms that ensure Indigenous Cultural Heritage is valued and protected for the future.
The strength of the Alliance comes from the breadth and diversity of our membership, and the unified position we seek on heritage protection matters.
To learn more visit www.culturalheritage.org.au
The First Nations Heritage Protection Alliance is hosted and managed by The National Native Title Council.
Sea Country Alliance
Sea Country is not just a resource, it is a cultural place providing sustenance for plants, animals, people and culture.
“Our songlines connect the heart of Australia to the coasts as they once were, now far out at sea. Our islands are connected through dreaming to the mainland and to each other. We understand Sea Country and terrestrial Country as one. One entity that includes people, plants and animals.”
Australia’s Traditional Owners with responsibility for Sea Country have come together to speak with one voice. The formation of the Sea Country Alliance, following a national meeting of Traditional Owners in November 2023, represents a step forward in realising our rights offshore.
All coastal state and territories of Australia are represented on the 55 member Alliance, ensuring that the complexity of our diverse seas, oceans and coastal areas is recognised. The Alliance has 45 Traditional Owner member corporations with statutory recognised responsibilities for Sea Country and 10 associate members who also assume offshore responsibilities.
The significance of the Alliance and the responsibilities of its represented members is enormous.
“Our connection to Sea Country is as important as to land and yet, the protections that recognise our rights aren’t the same. For over 65,000 years, Traditional Owners have cared for Sea Country, ensuring that the ecosystems thrived, and cultural connections remained strong. Australia’s bountiful oceans, with diverse species of animals and plants, were sustainably managed by our people for far, far longer than they have been by managed by others.”
Recent decisions in the Federal Court and increasing pressure on Sea Country resources, be they oil, gas or wind; have created an environment of uncertainty. Our work now, as an alliance of Sea Country rightsholders, is to ensure that we are at the forefront of decision making about our Country. We have started talking to government, international First nations communities, industry and community to chart a reasonable way forward.
“As Traditional Owners, our voices must be heard and our rights respected. Australia must not just meet but exceed international best practice in approaching Sea Country as a holistic environment that includes cultural significance, plants and animals and minerals.”
Further information
If you’re interest in joining the Alliance and fulfil Membership or Associate Membership requirements, please email seacountry@nntc.com.au
Read our Governance Charter
Meet our Members
