Archival Tape -- Keith Nye:

“This is one of our favorite, favourite hunting grounds, and feeding grounds, and culture grounds, all in one. We do a lot of beach fishing here, a lot of diving for lobster and abalone, what we call mutton fish…and ...am I allowed to do it? No.”

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RUBY:

From Schwartz Media I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am.

Sixty years ago commercial licenses were handed out to Australian fishers working in the lucrative shellfish industry. Since then, the families that obtained those licenses have made fortunes.

But many Aboriginal people whose ancestors have fished along the coast for tens of thousands of years have been locked out of the trade.

Archival Tape -- Keith Nye:

“Have I got a culture, have I got a right, have I got a role to play in this country, have I got a role to play right where I am standing, right now?”

Aboriginal fishers - like Yuin elder Keith Nye - have been described as “poachers” by industry and government, and face jail time for selling what they catch.

Archival Tape -- Keith Nye:

“I do respect the industry, from my heart, but do I really respect the law? No. And am I going to go diving this afternoon? Yes.”
(laughs)

Today, writer for The Monthly Paul Cleary - on the trial of Keith Nye, and his fight against the criminalisation of his culture.

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RUBY:

Paul, three years ago, Keith Nye was arrested. Can you tell me what happened?

PAUL:

So Keith Nye, who's a 64 year old Yuin elder,has been fishing and trading, particularly in abalone and also lobster and other valuable marine resources for most of his life.

Abalone is a very traditional part of the Yuin lifestyle. It's a shellfish. It's like a big snail inside a shell. It's something that they really enjoy eating. They actually regard it as a form of medicine.

Keith has been collecting seafood, freezing it, storing it for a while and then taking it up to Sydney and various other places and selling it.

And this is what he was caught doing in January 2017, when he had a few hundred frozen abalone in the boot of his car and police were tailing him. I think they were also tapping his phone. And they arrested him, handcuffed him, and then he was charged under the Fisheries Act and faces a prison sentence of up to 10 years in jail.

RUBY:

Paul, can you tell me a bit more about why it’s an offence for Keith to sell abalone that he’s caught?

PAUL:

Yeah, well, from the early 1960s onwards, the government started issuing licences to fish abalone because people realised this was a very valuable commodity.

Archival Tape -- Unidentified 1960s Reporter #1:

“One of the best fishing spots on the East Coast. So let's see what's for supper.”

PAUL:

It sells for about one hundred and forty dollars a kilogram, I checked this morning, and there's about 100 tons that the industry are allowed to access.

Archival Tape -- Unidentified 1960s Reporter #1:

“Bang goes an Australia record, 16 and half pounds of lobster with only the mayonnaise to come.”

PAUL:

And so these licences are then being tightly held. They're being controlled by families who have become very wealthy as a result.

Archival Tape -- Unidentified 1960s Reporter #1:

“Peaceful paradise of pestictorial frenzy”

PAUL:

But the licences were issued at that time in the 60s when Aboriginal people were completely marginalised.

And now when they are traded, which is very rare, but they are worth a lot of money, some of these licences I've heard are worth up to six million dollars.

RUBY:

Mm, so what you’re saying is because Aboriginal people who live in the area didn’t receive these licenses back when they were being handed out - that means it’s now illegal for them to sell abalone they’ve caught?

PAUL:

So they're illegal because it's set out in the Act that trafficking of these indictable species, there is a limit of 50. But if you go above that, then it is subject to these penalties. And so I think the key thing is the government really wants to send a very strong message to Aboriginal people to stop their traditional practise.

Archival Tape -- Danny Chapman:

“I'm Danny Chapman. I’m a saltwater man, Walbunja man from the South Coast.”

PAUL:

Danny Chapman is an elected representative of the Yuin region in the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council, and his view is for someone who's been following this matter for 40 years, is that the government has simply turned Aboriginal people into criminals.

Archival Tape -- Danny Chapman:

“What they've done is, they've legislated us out of the industry, created another class of outlaws.”

PAUL:

I’ve looked at these figures I've obtained from the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics, which show that the government of New South Wales has been very willing and ready to jail, particularly Aboriginal people, for these offences. More than 80 per cent of the people jailed over the last decade identify as Aboriginal. Many more have been issued with bonds and many more have also been fined.

Archival Tape -- Danny Chapman:

“I just can't put words around it, you know? And I just get very angry about it all the time when I try to talk about it, you know, one day we was happily fishing, and the next day, if we did the same thing we were sent to prison for it.”

PAUL:

If you look at the jail statistics, they’re about twenty four times overrepresented relative to the three point four per cent of the population that they make up.

RUBY:

Mmm and so that is what Keith is facing right now isn’t it - the prospect of jail time?

PAUL:

So Keith could have taken the easy way out. And he was told that if you just pleaded guilty, he might get off with a fine or a short jail term.

But he decided as an Aboriginal man, as an elder, and a native title holder who’s part of the claim that he wanted to assert his right as an Aboriginal person.

Archival Tape -- Keith Nye:

“Fishing is a main part of my culture. Fishing is a very, very big part of my culture. It saved me. If I lose my culture and my belief of life, my dignity, what would I become?

And God damn, they tried to do that to me. And they're still trying to this day. Are they going to succeed? I don't know. But am I going to back down? No. I want to stand up and say they can’t push us around anymore.”

RUBY:

We’ll be back in a moment.

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RUBY:

Paul, can you tell me about what Keith plans to argue to defend his case in court?

PAUL:

Yeah, I know it's interesting, so Keith has argued and his other witnesses who have supported him, there's been some extraordinary evidence in this case, that really shows that these practises have gone back for thousands of years, but also have been continued very much until recent times; that that even in the 60s and 70s, there were Aboriginal people living along the coast, living traditional lifestyles, relying on their fishing to support themselves.

Some of the evidence actually shows that from the very first contact with white people, an expedition led by Governor Macquarie in 1811 showed that the Yuin people actually traded seafood in return for biscuits and tobacco. So this trading is not new and it's something that's really part of their culture. So Keith is asserting that right.

And it's been interesting, the government prosecution has tried to argue that people in the community frown on trading - unnamed people by the way. The argument is that there are elders in the Yuin community who don't think that Aboriginal people should be trading.

And the case is that the New South Wales government's been interesting, I think they certainly follow it very, very closely. There are senior government law officers ‘Zoom-ing’ into the courtroom all day, sitting on their screens watching Keith's case. It is quite extraordinary to see that. And I think that's because they fear that it could set a legal precedent.

RUBY:

Right, and what do you mean by that? What sort of impact could Keith’s case have?

PAUL:

So I think if Keith won this case, I think it would be a real turning point. I think the government would realise that it cannot continue prosecuting and harassing Aboriginal people in this way. I think a victory would mean that government really needs to change strategy and develop a policy that's about supporting Aboriginal people to sustainably manage their resources.

You know, it really doesn't have a strategy to deal with this, it doesn't have a policy to engage Aboriginal people to recognise their rights and to develop some sort of sustainable economic programme for the Aboriginal communities.

So they are essentially shut out of the industry. They're facing very harsh, I would argue, racially biased enforcement. And there's no strategy. I mean, I couldn't even get answers to questions from the Minister for Agriculture on this matter. That's just something that's not on their radar. They don't want to know about it. And they just want to continue with the aggressive enforcement.

RUBY:

And so what is this about for Keith - because it seems like for him, it's obviously bigger than just his own case, his own rights to sell abalone?

PAUL:

It is about recognition. Recognition is absolutely fundamental for people who have been marginalised, who've been dispossessed of their land. And so this is really what it comes down to. It's about Keith making a stand to be recognised and just to say enough is enough. We deserve much, much better than this. And you're going to take notice of us.

Archival Tape -- Keith Nye:

“Can the governments and the court of the law, can they hurt me anymore? Can they really hurt me anymore? My answer to that is: no they fucking can’t.

Because they virtually took everything that I had, but I still exist.”

RUBY:

Paul, thank you so much for your time today.

PAUL:

Thank you.

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RUBY:

Also in the news today…

The federal health minister Greg Hunt has revealed that a record number of Australians were vaccinated on Tuesday, with more than 90,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine issued within a 24-hour period for the first time.

The figure came as a new survey revealed almost one third of Australians were unlikely to be vaccinated.

And France has ramped up pressure on the US to publicly call for a ceasefire in Israel and Gaza.

The call came after a UN security council meeting ended without a joint statement.

I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am, see ya tomorrow.

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