In 2010, Miya assisted Dr Dermot Smyth (Smyth & Bahrdt Consultants) in preparing a report for the Victorian Government on how to progress free-standing statutory recognition of Traditional Owner customary use of and access to natural resources. The report reviewed the statutory recognition of Indigenous peoples’ access to and use of natural resources in other Australian jurisdictions and internationally and considered how lessons learnt from that analysis could be used to establish a best practice free-standing statutory right for Traditional Owners in in Victoria.
[A Right to Country: Towards a free-standing statutory right for Traditional Owners to the non-commercial access and use of natural resources in Victoria, Report to the Native Title Unit, Victorian Department of Justice, Prepared by Dermot Smyth, Miya Isherwood, Stephan Schnierer for Smyth and Bahrdt Consultants, April 2010]