At the recent Garma Festival the Gumatj Corporation entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste. The Memorandum is a ground-breaking document, being as it is between an Aboriginal clan group and a nation state – the first of its type in Australian legal history.

Bowden McCormack worked with the parties in arranging the early dialogue that led to the MOU and in drafting the document in collaboration with the Timor-Leste government through its Ambassador, Mr. Abel Guterres. Further discussions are now taking place under the banner of the MOU intended to extend the relationship between the parties to collaboration in education through shared higher education programs and through trade in the forestry products being derived from Gumatj land.