EXCLUSIVE
When Donald Fraser offers a smile and handshake as he warmly says ‘Welcome to my country’ from the front verandah of his Outback home he means it literally.
Fraser is one of about 2,000 Indigenous land owners who have held freehold title over 103,000 square kilometres of Central Australia for the past 42 years.
He does not call himself the father of land rights in South Australia’s remote north west but that is exactly what he is.
The self-admitted old ‘s***-stirrer’ was one of the main driving forces behind the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Land Rights Act and is among the last of those involved still living.
But where Fraser once believed that landmark legislation would allow his people to determine their own futures he now believes it ties them in bureaucratic knots that stop them moving forward.
Anangu elder Donald Fraser is the father of land rights in South Australia’s far north west. He fought for Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people to secure freehold ownership of 103,000 sq km
![Donald Fraser grew up at Ernabella where the missionaries insisted children learnt Pitjantjatjara and encouraged Anangu to maintain their traditional customs. Fraser is pictured in 1960 standing in front of a donkey carrying two other kids](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/09/29/00/75708213-12539047-Donald_Fraser_grew_up_at_Ernabella_where_the_missionaries_insist-a-17_1695942688107.jpg)
Donald Fraser grew up at Ernabella where the missionaries insisted children learnt Pitjantjatjara and encouraged Anangu to maintain their traditional customs. Fraser is pictured in 1960 standing in front of a donkey carrying two other kids
![Three of Donald Fraser's daughters now work at Kenmore Park Anangu School where children are taught Pitjantjatjara as well as English. Fraser is pictured at the school](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/10/01/03/75829859-12539047-Three_of_Donald_Fraser_s_daughters_now_work_at_Kenmore_Park_Anan-a-23_1696126009914.jpg)
Three of Donald Fraser’s daughters now work at Kenmore Park Anangu School where children are taught Pitjantjatjara as well as English. Fraser is pictured at the school
Fraser has lived in humpies, houses, and out in the spinifex. He had a stint in Sydney as a young man and spent time in Canberra where he visited the Aboriginal Tent Embassy. ‘I thought it was strange,’ he says. ‘People shouting and carrying on.’
Anangu (pronounced arn-ahng-oo) are the people who speak the Pitjantjatjara (pit-jan-jah-jarra) and Yankunytjatjara (yan-kun-ja-jarra) Western Desert dialects and live on what is called the APY Lands.
Fraser says when land rights were first granted it was community members who made most decisions and were effectively in control. He reckons that has changed so that Anangu are now on the bottom of the power pyramid.
APY Lands have always required money from federal and state government – hundreds of millions of dollars have been poured in over the decades with little lasting benefit to show for it.
Fraser grew up on the APY Lands’ first major settlement when it was a mission known as Ernabella, founded by the Presbyterian Church in 1937.
He is ‘roughly’ 75 or 76. ‘I could be older or I could be younger but I don’t know because I’ve got no date of birth,’ he says.
![Donald Fraser, pictured left in the arms of another boy at Ernabella mission about 1948, grew up happy and well cared for in a settlement run by the Presbyterian Church](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/09/29/00/75707861-12539047-Donald_Fraser_pictured_left_in_the_arms_of_another_boy_at_Ernabe-a-25_1695942689635.jpg)
Donald Fraser, pictured left in the arms of another boy at Ernabella mission about 1948, grew up happy and well cared for in a settlement run by the Presbyterian Church
![Donald Fraser is 'roughly' 75 or 76. 'I could be older or I could be younger but I don't know because I've got no date of birth,' he says. He is pictured standing in shorts in Ernabella creek](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/09/29/00/75708023-12539047-Donald_Fraser_is_roughly_75_or_76_I_could_be_older_or_I_could_be-a-19_1695942688275.jpg)
Donald Fraser is ‘roughly’ 75 or 76. ‘I could be older or I could be younger but I don’t know because I’ve got no date of birth,’ he says. He is pictured standing in shorts in Ernabella creek
Today, Ernabella is called Pukatja and has a population of 465 Anangu, 46 per cent of whom are unemployed. The median personal weekly income is $316.
Fraser lives across the street from Pukatja Roadhouse and sees endless wasted opportunities.
Where once there were cattle stations on the Lands, there is almost no agriculture, and tourism is next to non-existent.
The potential for lucrative mining of minerals including nickel, copper, titanium, platinum and palladium as well as oil is still only being explored.
‘We never thought about being businessmen as in running cattle stations and other stuff,’ Fraser says. ‘That’s why we’re struggling now.
‘APY owns everything when it should be owned by the community. We want to make the APY a caretaker so that each community can own their community and the homelands and everything else.
‘We need to look at the Land Rights Act and review it ourselves and look at what went wrong. I think we set it up for a lot of outside people to come and take advantage of us and make a lot of money.’
One recent major improvement has been completion of the first stages of a $156million roads upgrade, which began with sealing the route between Pukatja and Umuwa, the Lands’ administrative centre.
During a week-long visit to the Lands, Daily Mail Australia met white government contractors in basic jobs who were earning almost $90,000 a year and living rent-free with no water or power bills.
![Fraser started droving sheep at age 13, worked as a jackaroo at nearby Kenmore Park and picked up mechanical, plumbing and electrical skills. He is pictured at Yunyarinyi in 1979](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/10/01/03/75798943-12539047-Fraser_started_droving_sheep_at_age_13_worked_as_a_jackaroo_at_n-a-22_1696126008433.jpg)
Fraser started droving sheep at age 13, worked as a jackaroo at nearby Kenmore Park and picked up mechanical, plumbing and electrical skills. He is pictured at Yunyarinyi in 1979
![The APY Lands are a 15 hour drive from Adelaide and a five hour drive from Alice Springs. Among the major communities are Pukatja, Fregon and Amanta as well as Umuwa, the area's administration centre](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/09/29/00/75831863-12539047-The_APY_Lands_are_a_15_hour_drive_from_Adelaide_and_a_five_hour_-a-18_1695942688274.jpg)
The APY Lands are a 15 hour drive from Adelaide and a five hour drive from Alice Springs. Among the major communities are Pukatja, Fregon and Amanta as well as Umuwa, the area’s administration centre
Fraser looks back on the mission times with fondness. The missionaries insisted children learnt Pitjantjatjara and encouraged Anangu to maintain their traditional lore and customs.
‘The missionaries were very good,’ he says. ‘They listened to the tribal elders.’
Anangu moved to the Ernabella mission voluntarily and remained in their family groups. The missionaries provided paid employment raising cattle and sheep as well as growing vegetables.
As a child, Fraser rode donkeys and then horses, killed dingos for a £1 bounty in school holidays and supplemented his mission diet with bush tucker such as quandong and native figs.
His early English vocabulary came from the cowboy songs of Australian country stars Slim Dusty and Buddy Williams but he didn’t understand the words.
Fraser did not know his father but had fairer skin than most other children at Ernabella and was told to hide out in the bush when government officials came to the mission.
‘The missionaries were keeping an eye on me,’ he says. ‘The welfare and the policemen were hunting for people like me.’
![The Church handed control of the mission to the Ernabella Community Council in 1974 when Fraser was in his mid 20s. An abandoned building at what is now called Pukatja is pictured](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/09/25/08/75626247-12539047-The_Church_handed_control_of_the_mission_to_the_Ernabella_Commun-a-3_1695628175967.jpg)
The Church handed control of the mission to the Ernabella Community Council in 1974 when Fraser was in his mid 20s. An abandoned building at what is now called Pukatja is pictured
![Where once there were cattle stations on the Lands, there is almost no agriculture, the potential for lucrative mining is still only being explored and tourism is next to non-existent. An abandoned cattle yard near Amata is pictured](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/09/29/00/75626197-12539047-Where_once_there_were_cattle_stations_on_the_Lands_there_is_almo-a-22_1695942688884.jpg)
Where once there were cattle stations on the Lands, there is almost no agriculture, the potential for lucrative mining is still only being explored and tourism is next to non-existent. An abandoned cattle yard near Amata is pictured
Fraser started droving sheep at age 13, worked as a jackaroo at nearby Kenmore Park and picked up mechanical, plumbing and electrical skills. He later learnt to fly light aircraft.
‘I did it all,’ he says. ‘We made bricks to build houses. I tried a bit of everything.’
The Church handed control of the mission to the Ernabella Community Council in 1974 when Fraser was in his mid 20s.
Two years later federal parliament passed the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act, allowing First Nations people to claim country where traditional ownership could be proven.
Fraser and other young men from Ernabella including Kawaki ‘Punch’ Thompson began agitating for land rights over APY Lands which in 1981 they achieved.
Anangu now owned their country under the APY Land Rights Act but it is that legislation that Fraser believes is still preventing his people getting ahead.
‘Long time ago people worked on sheep and cattle stations and everything,’ he says.
‘The young people don’t care about land rights. They just care about the Centrelink.’
![Fraser, who will vote No in the Voice referendum, has always wanted Anangu to live independently from government management](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/09/29/00/75625875-12539047-Fraser_who_will_vote_No_in_the_Voice_referendum_has_always_wante-a-26_1695942690038.jpg)
Fraser, who will vote No in the Voice referendum, has always wanted Anangu to live independently from government management
![APY Lands have always required money from federal and state government - hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested over the decades](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/10/01/03/75625877-12539047-APY_Lands_have_always_required_money_from_federal_and_state_gove-a-24_1696126009915.jpg)
APY Lands have always required money from federal and state government – hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested over the decades
Under the Act, two members from each of the Lands’ seven main communities are elected to serve on an executive board that appoints a general manager who has an administrative arm below him.
Fraser, who will vote No in the Voice to Parliament referendum, was the first chairman of the AYP Board and received the Order of Australia Medal ‘in recognition of service to the Aboriginal community’ in 1994.
He has always wanted Anangu to live independently from government management but says that can only happen when they can stand up on their own.
‘It would be great to run our own land a second time,’ he says. ‘This is our land, our country.
‘The train that we built went off the tracks a bit. The land rights was done a long time ago not knowing the future and that’s where we run into problems.
![Fraser says when land rights were first granted it was community members who made most decisions and were effectively in control. He reckons that has changed so that Anangu are now on the bottom of the power pyramid](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/10/01/03/75628907-12539047-Fraser_says_when_land_rights_were_first_granted_it_was_community-a-20_1696126007864.jpg)
Fraser says when land rights were first granted it was community members who made most decisions and were effectively in control. He reckons that has changed so that Anangu are now on the bottom of the power pyramid
‘When I started the land rights my name was a s***-stirrer. We never used to follow the Land Rights Act. APY is controlling everything according to the Act.
‘The land rights is not helping us. The land rights is here to make us sit down and go back to the 1940s and 1950s.’
APY general manager Richard King makes no apologies for strictly adhering to the Act.
‘The Act is there to protect Anangu and the Act is there to ensure all Anangu benefit, not just certain individuals,’ he says.
Fraser likens the original APY governance structure to an umbrella’s canopy containing all community members deciding their fate, with an executive board below that, followed by management and an administrative team.
‘When I finish, the umbrella was right way up,’ he says. ‘The wind blew the umbrella upside down.
‘The manager is on top of the executive. It’s 14 people from those communities making decisions for 2,000 and that’s wrong.’
As chairman of the APY Board in the 1980s Fraser introduced a permit system that allowed only Anangu automatic entry to the Lands, where alcohol is banned.
He believes those restrictions no longer work and instead are keeping investment out of the region.
‘I had to do something to stop the grog but now we’re swimming in grog,’ he says. ‘The permit was brought in and now we’re stuck with it. The permit is holding everything up.’
The Board’s current structure was defined under 2016 amendments to the APY Land Rights Act which included a gender balance and the removal of voting by marbles to modernise the election process.
Fraser believes changes to Act have reduced community members’ say in their own future but blames himself for what he sees as problems with the original document.
‘I feel guilty because I did it without looking at it,’ he says. ‘ I don’t want to be the father of land rights. I just want the best for the people.’
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