Footnotes

View article sources (9)

Main source: 'Land claims campaign 2010: Background to Aboriginal land rights in NSW',
NSW Aboriginal Land Council, factsheet
[1] 'Indigenous rock festival', SMH 9/10/2010
[2] 'Mining industry successfully scuppered Aboriginal land rights in Australia during the
80's', Mining.com, 1/1/2013
[3] 'How Bob Hawke killed land rights', Treaty Republic, 28/2/2013,
treatyrepublic.net/content/how-bob-hawke-killed-land-rights, retrieved 12/3/2013
[4] 'Cabinet documents reveal Hawke backtrack on land rights', The Tracker 28/2/2013
[5] 'How the Murdoch press keeps Australias dirty secret', New Statesman 12/5/2011
[6] 'Smashing The Myths: Native Title is Land
Rights", http://www.989fm.com.au/smashingthemyths/native-title-is-land-rights/,
retrieved 15/10/2013
[7] 'Euahlayi People take their fight for their lands to Supreme Court', National Unity
Government 22/4/2014
[8] 'Tony Abbott visits Eddie Mabo's grave on Murray Island'

Source: http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/land/abori
ginal-land-rights#ixzz43mnLpgBu
LAND

Aboriginal land rights

The Aboriginal land rights movement
started in 1966 with a demand for better
wages.
10 years later the first Aboriginal land
rights act secured Aboriginal peoples
rights to land.

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By Jens Korf
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Last updated: 4 March 2016

In this article:

What are land rights?

Native Title, Land Rights Actwhats the difference?
1966: Start of the land rights movement
1983: Land rights movement close to reaching its goal
1984: Mining industry fights back
1985: Land rights reduced to rubble
1986: The end of land rights
2014: Legal challenge to invaders right to land
Land rights in New South Wales

What are land rights?

People often forget that the development and prosperity
of Australia is in great part a result of dispossessing
Aboriginal people of their lands, forcing them into slave
labour and and denying them basic human rights.
Australia has long refused to give genuine land rights to
Aboriginal people. Sovereign land rights would include the
full value of minerals and others resources, prompting
conflict with the powerful resources industry.
Land rights would also include genuine autonomy.
Together with access to adequate housing they provide
the foundation for an economic base so Aboriginal people
can be independent and dont need to rely on government
support.
Access, ownership and control of land by Aboriginal
people allows for long-term planning and development

that will eventually raise their economic, health and social

status.
Ross Watson, a Murri from the Dawson River, explains land
rights from an Aboriginal perspective [6]: Land rights
means a spiritual and economic base (not in a profit and
loss way) and the opportunity to once again become a
self-determining people. We are not asking for Land rights
to be given or granted we are demanding recognition of
our rights to our own land. Land rights include religious,
fishing, hunting and camping rights if currently forbidden
on all relevant crown land. Land Rights includes our right
to refuse mining on any part of our land.

We appreciate the fact that Indigenous

people have rights to their land.Prime Minister Tony
Abbott when visiting the gravesite of land rights campaigner Eddie Mabo on
Murray Island in August 2015 [8]

Native Title, Land Rights Act

whats the difference?
Two powerful legislations about Aboriginal land exist. The
Aboriginal Land Rights Act and native title
legislation which came from the High Courts Mabo
decision in 1992.
Native title legislation is about recognising Aboriginal
peoples connection and rights to land and water.
Land rights legislation in NSW is about compensating
Aboriginal people for past dispossession, dislocation
and removal of land.

1966: Start of the land rights

movement

In the 1960s, mining occurred on Aboriginal reserves and

on Aboriginal land without any consultation or negotiation
with Aboriginal people. But in 1966 the issue of land rights
was placed firmly into the national spotlight.
In August 1966, 200 Aboriginal stockmen of the Gurindji
people and their families walked off Wave Hill pastoral
station in the Northern Territory, initially in protest over
their wages.
The strike soon spread to include the more fundamental
issue about their traditional lands. The Wave Hill walk-off
had started the first Aboriginal land claim.
Gary Foley, a Gumbaynggirr historian, recalls [6]: In the
60s and 70s, we were talking about real land ownership;
land that we could have control over, so we could say no,
you cant come in here or we want to do this with our
land. Thats what self-determination is the power to
control your own affairs. Ownership of land is fundamental
to this in terms of creating the basis for people to survive
the attack of colonialism. Land rights is important because
it would provide the means by which the Aboriginal
community could go through the process of reconstruction
and recuperation.
Ten years later the government ratified the Aboriginal
Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976.
Although a significant step in the land rights social justice
movement, the Northern Territory Act didnt apply to NSW.

Video: Aboriginal land rights movement

Watch a short documentary on Aboriginal Land Rights in
Australia. Created for a Year 10 history assessment.

1983: Land rights movement

close to reaching its goal

In 1982 and 1984 Labor Party national conferences

endorsed nation-wide land rights, including the core
principles that Aboriginal people would control mining on
Aboriginal land, as well as enjoy mining royalty
equivalents and negotiated compensation for lost territory
[2].
The early 1980s were a time where the Aboriginal land
rights movement came very close to achieving its main
goal.
In the 1983 federal election the Hawke government had
promised legislation to ensure land rights are achieved
for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
throughout Australia and their cultural sites and objects
are fully protected [4].
In a statement in 1983, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs,
Clyde Holding, outlined the governments five land rights
principles [3]:
Inalienable freehold title for Aboriginal land;
Full legal protection of sacred sites;
Aboriginal control over mining on Aboriginal land;
Access to mining royalty equivalents;
Compensation for lost land.

1984: Mining industry fights

back
Two things thwarted these good intentions: Under
Australias federal political system, state governments
could still make laws of their own, and they also
implemented federal land right policies differently or not
at all.
And then there was the mining industry.
In resources-rich Western Australia, the mining industry
and the pastoral industry, strongly supported by WA Labor

Premier Brian Burke, mounted a major scare campaign

against land rights [3].
By December 1984 Burke had successfully introduced
legislation which denied Aboriginal communities the right
to veto mining or exploratory activities, and restricted
land applications to regions of limited economic
consequence.
Although the Labor Party had solemnly pledged to
legislate Aboriginal land rights [5], Prime Minister Bob
Hawke opposed the move. He withdrew his commitment to
the Aboriginal veto over mining activities when Burke
convinced him that it could cost Labor as many as eight
seats in Western Australia.
Hawke blamed the public for being less compassionate;
but a secret, 64-page report to the party showed
that most Australians supported land rights. It was leaked
to The Australian newspaper, whose front page declared,
Few support Aboriginal land rights, the opposite of the
truth, thus feeding an atmosphere of self-fulfilling
distrust, backlash and rejection of rights that might
have distinguished Australia from South Africa [5].

1985: Land rights reduced to

rubble
In February 1985, the Hawke government announced a
new, revamped Preferred National Land Rights Model,
dumping four of the five principles outlined in 1983.
The new model [3]:
Required no Aboriginal consent for mining on
Aboriginal land,
Prevented land claims over stock routes, stock
reserves and Aboriginal-owned pastoral leases, and
Restricted eligibility for excisions.
The new model omitted the Aboriginal right to veto, as
well as access to mining royalty equivalents and
compensation for appropriated land.

The Labor government in Western Australia and the Labor

government in New South Wales both opposed the
proposed national legislation but for different reasons [4].
The NSW government, backed by Aboriginal organisations,
opposed the proposed model because it diluted Aboriginal
rights, particularly those already enshrined in the NSW
Parliaments Aboriginal Land Rights Act (1983).
The WA government, backed by the mining and pastoral
industries, campaigned against the proposed legislation,
arguing it provided Aboriginal people too many rights.
And if that wasnt already enough, the mining industrys
anti-land rights campaign ran a multi-million dollar
advertising propaganda campaign that any reasonable
person might regard as racist [3].

1986: The end of land rights

In the face of the public scare campaign by the mining
industry and the withdrawal of support by the Western
Australian Labor Party, the Hawke government retreated
from its own commitments, feebly claiming that most
states have made advances towards land rights [3].
This moment represented the end of national land rights.

What happened to land rights was that the

mining industry was too powerful, the
pastoral industry was too powerful and the
Commonwealth government didnt have the

will to stand up to those vested interest

group.Paul Coe, Aboriginal activist, Wiradjuri nation [3]
Aboriginal political activists continued to campaign
through the 1980s, culminating in a rally and march
through Sydney on the day of the 1988 Bicentennial.

2014: Legal challenge to

invaders right to land
The Euahlayi Head of State, Michael Anderson, in 2014
demanded the New South Wales and Queensland
governments hand over documents which prove their legal
right to the land. He made his claim under traditional
Aboriginal law [7].
Michael Anderson challenged the governments to produce
documents that show an official transfer of title deeds
from the Euahlayi, a declaration of war and a surrender,
and state who officiated on behalf of both parties.
Because Anderson expects both governments to be unable
to produce what is in effect their proof of ownership, he is
fairly confident his challenge will succeed.

I'm claiming land title. We've been there

since time immemorial. I want to know how
they shifted Aboriginal law, Allodial Title
from my mob to their common law system.
Michael Ghillar Anderson [7]

Land rights in New South

Wales
In NSW, the struggle for land rights continued with a
number of groups undertaking land claims throughout the
state, leading to the Aboriginal Lands Trust being
established in 1979.
Former Aboriginal reserves were given freehold title. The
Trust had the power to sell or acquire further lands.
In 1980 a Select Committee upon Aborigines submitted its
report. The Committee included representatives of all
political parties.
A key recommendation of the Report was that Aboriginal
land rights was fundamental to Aboriginal selfdetermination and autonomy, and the economic base
needed for Aboriginal self-management depended on
providing a viable land base.
Three years later, on 10 June 1983, the Aboriginal Land
Rights Act came into effect, recognising the dispossession
and dislocation of Aboriginal people in NSW. The Act is a
key legislation for land rights in NSW.
The preamble to the Act acknowledges the special nature
of the relationship between Aboriginal people and land.
The Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 established a
statutory fund consisting of funds derived from annual
payments until 1998 of 7.5% of gross State Land Tax
revenue, half of which is set aside as capital to finance
Aboriginal development in the future with the balance
meeting the costs of land council administration and land
purchases.
Today the NSW Aboriginal Land Council does not rely on
government funding and is financially independent in all
its operations.

Importantly, the Act provides a system of Aboriginal Land

Councils that obtain inalienable freehold title to land
through the process of land claims, purchase or bequests.
Land rights are fundamental to redressing the past
injustices, alleviating social and economic disadvantage.
The NSW Aboriginal Land Rights Act assists Aboriginal
people on the path for social and economic independence
through the acquisition of land for housing, business
enterprises, education and training as well as promoting
Aboriginal culture, identity and heritage.

Uluru: A symbolic high point for Aboriginal

land rights
On 26 October 1985 the government handed back Uluru
(formerly known as Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta (the Olgas)
to the Anangu traditional owners, an event which marked
a high point for Aboriginal land rights.
The Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park became one of the first
parks in the world to be managed by a board with a
majority of traditional owners [1].
Joint management was guided by tjukurpa - traditional
Anangu law and knowledge.
The park is listed twice as a World Heritage area: for its
environment in 1987 and for the global significance of the
Anangu living culture in 1994.
Every year more than 300,000 visitors come to the site,
with a small minority of them disrespecting the
sacredness of the rock.
Many visitors link with Anunga Tours, an award-winning
company owned and staffed by Aboriginal people.

Source: http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/la
nd/aboriginal-land-rights#ixzz43mmktMS9