Aborigines Win Back Huge Area of Desert
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An Australian state has agreed to hand back a slice of desert as large as New York to Aborigines 50 years after they were driven out because the British government wanted to use it to test missiles.
Western Australia state expects court approval this week on the deal to return 53,000 square miles to the 2,000-strong Martu people.
“They are the traditional owners of the area and have maintained those ties since the colonization of Western Australia in 1829,” deputy state premier Eric Ripper said. The chunk of mainly arid sand dunes and scrubland is the biggest piece of land ever to be returned to native inhabitants by Australia.
The Martu people continue to follow a traditional lifestyle.
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