2021 CY OConnor Lecture: Rebuilding community resilience and cultural connections

While public infrastructure, such as the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme, has been hugely important to our state’s economic development, it has also had a wide-scale, ongoing impact on Aboriginal people and their culture. In recent years, the legal recognition of Aboriginal people’s inherent rights has resulted in significant changes in the relationship between traditional owners and the State of Western Australia. The Hon Ben Wyatt, former WA Treasurer and Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, discussed how these rights have ensured the inclusion of Aboriginal people and played a vital role in rebuilding community resilience, economic independence and social and cultural connections.