Council is looking at setting up guidelines for negotiating with the Deerubbin Local Aboriginal Land Council (DLALC), which owns about 4,000 hectares of land in the Mountains.
Cr Kerry Brown recently moved an urgency motion for council to establish principles of engagement to ensure a good working relationship with the Indigenous council.
Graham Davis King, a land council member and director, said the principles should ensure “respectful” discussions between the two groups.
He said the problem has been one of inequality.
“I think it’s really important to have a framework where people can sit down with each other as equals,” he said. “Our CEO and chairman aren’t talking to the chairperson or the mayor. We’re engaging with the bureaucrats.”
With principles set up, it would enable “a respectful process of discussions”, he said.
The land council owns property adjoining Blackheath tip, and had offered some of its own land as a buffer against the asbestos on the tip site.
Mr Davis King said when they tried to talk to council about the issue, “I don’t think we were engaging in a way that we should as equals”.
Deerubbin has agreements with Penrith Council, the Greater Sydney Commission, Rookwood Cemetery and Landcom, said its chief operating officer Stephen Wright.
“All these agreements do is establish who the parties are. It’s a straightforward working group process.
“It astounds me that council has, over the years, not had a better relationship [with Deerubbin],” he said.
Mr Wright said the agreements simply recognised that both groups had important issues of mutual interest which should be addressed by “mutual engagement”.
Cr Brown said she hoped any agreement advancing the culture and well-being of the traditional owners and other local Aboriginal residents would create opportunities for housing, employment, education and community facilities.