The Land Rights Movement

Contemporary Aboriginal Spiritualities Studies of Religion Syllabus Topic: Religion and Belief Systems in Australia post-1945 Contemporary Aboriginal Spiritualities Students learn about: issues for Aboriginal spiritualities in relation to: * the effect of dispossession * the Land Rights movement Students learn to: outline the importance of the following for the Land Rights movement: * Native Title * Mabo * Wik analyse the importance of the Dreaming for the Land Rights movement

Aboriginal activism prior to Native Title 1888 Centenary celebrations boycotted 1938 Day of Mourning (150 years white settlement) 1963 Bark petition (for land) of Yirrikala people to Commonwealth government 1965 Freedom Rides – focusing national attention on racism (Charles Perkins) 1966 Wave Hill strike (Gurindji people) Land rights to part of pastoral station 1970 Ceremony of Mourning at Kurnell Bi-centenary of white discovery – Captain Cook 1770

NO SUCCESSFUL LAND RIGHTS CLAIMS Aboriginal activism prior to Native Title 1971 Northern Territory Supreme Court & High Court determined Yolngu people had no rights to their traditional land. 1972 Aboriginal Tent Embassy – Aboriginal flag designed NO SUCCESSFUL LAND RIGHTS CLAIMS UNTIL “MABO”

MABO 1992 BACKGROUND: In 1788, the British claimed ownership of the entire Australian continent. To the European mind, the indigenous people who had occupied Australia for many thousands of years were nomads, without property, social organisation or systems of laws. So the British held that Australia was terra nullius, land belonging to no-one. According to British law, imposed by force, Aboriginal people were not legal owners of the land. This included the islands of the Torres Strait. In 1981, Eddie Mabo and other Torres Strait Islanders decided to fight for their ancestral right to land on Mer, which the British had renamed Murray Island. They took the Australian government to court. The case became known as “the Mabo case”. They argued for acknowledgment of ‘native title’ and the complex, customary patterns of land ownership, inheritance and use that predated colonisation. Central to the case was Malo, a Meriam god (represented as an octopus) who gave the Islanders their laws.

MABO 1992 The High Court verdict: 3 June 1992 This High Court ruling overturns the legal doctrine of terra nullius and recognises that: the community of Murray Island had a valid system of land ownership that predates white settlement Australia’s Indigenous peoples owned traditional land under native title native title continues to the present day, unless extinguished by the Crown native title may be extinguished if the landholders lose all connection to their lands and cease to observe their traditional laws and customs.

MABO 1992 “Mabo” or Native Title Judgement Native Title Act, 1993 High Court decision Native Title Act, 1993 Native Title Judgement made law in Parliament Native Title Act, 1993: Introduced by Keating Government - legislation to recognise the Mabo Decision Worked to reduce rights of Aboriginal people by validating land titles made since 1788 and even illegal titles. It gave Aboriginal people some advantage in that it created a legal mechanism whereby claims of Native Title could be made through the courts.

Native Title Act 1993 Successful claims result in recognition of traditional rights but this does not usually mean full ownership Can be claimed over: Crown land Land held under land rights Over water Can be extinguished by other types of title: freehold and exclusive leases. Must show traditional connection with the claimed area An Aboriginal individual can claim on behalf of a native title claim group.

LAND OWNERSHIP IN AUSTRALIA Freehold: Torrens Title Company Title (units and flats) Strata Title (units and flats) Crown land: Government owned/managed by the government Pastoral leases: for large cattle stations and farming properties. Land is “leased” from the Government for many years, 99 years, property may have been run by family for generations Native title: Indigenous peoples ownership of traditional lands Must shown unbroken connection with the land

Native Title + Pastoral Leases WIK 1996 Who ? The Wik people in Cape York Peninsula (Northern Qld) Wik decision handed down by High Court in December, 1996. Focused on question: did the granting of a pastoral lease extinguish Native Title? High Court determined that native title could co-exist with other rights on land held under a pastoral lease. Court found that whilst leaseholders had been able to carry out their various activities, they had not been granted exclusive possession of the land. The leaseholders activities had not extinguished the indigenous people’s rights and interests. But when pastoralists and Aboriginal rights were in conflict, the pastoralists’ rights would prevail. Native Title + Pastoral Leases CO-EXIST

NATIVE TITLE AMENDMENT ACT 1998 John Howard’s 10 point plan Aim: to get the Wik ruling operational, more “workable” Impact: Drastically reduced the negotiating rights of Indigenous people States and territories to manage native title in their boundaries

Overview Native Title acknowledges the RIGHTS of indigenous people BUT … 1 Focus is on a very small group 2 Direct and continuous connections with vacant crown land Problem: Government policies have created DISPOSSESSION

Aboriginal Council for Reconciliation set up in 1991 Aim: attempt to address the majority of indigenous people falling outside the minority entitled to native title

LAND RIGHTS & DREAMING Aboriginal people have a way of returning to the land which is consistent with modern Australian law and process. The way forward has new hope as Aboriginal people are returning to the land and attempting to pick up the pieces of kinship and Dreaming. As these individual find themselves, they find their spirit. As the kinship groups reconnect, the people find direction in life. With a return to the land Aboriginal people find purpose. The land rights legislation … helps in the support of the spirituality and Dreaming for Aboriginal people. The Dreaming gives a sense of focus, strength and connection to the land which allowed Aboriginal Australia to stay focused and to fight through the long and bloody history of invasion / settlement, colonialism, paternalism and social ignorance. Howard Clark, Spotlight Studies of Religion, Science Press, Sydney, 2007.

More recently … Yarmirr decision An extension of the Mabo decision October 2001 High Court determined that Native Title was consistent with the use of the sea but did not grant exclusivity.

The Land Rights Movement