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Indigenous land rights in Australia, also known as Aboriginal land rights in Australia, relate to the rights and interests in land of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Torres Strait Islanders () are the Indigenous Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal people of the rest of Australia ...
people in Australia, and the term may also include the struggle for those rights. Connection to the land and waters is vital in
Australian Aboriginal culture Australian Aboriginal culture includes a number of practices and ceremonies centered on a belief in the Dreamtime and other mythology. Reverence and respect for the land and oral traditions are emphasised. Over 300 languages and other groupi ...
and to that of Torres Strait Islander people, and there has been a long battle to gain legal and moral recognition of ownership of the lands and waters occupied by the many peoples prior to
colonisation of Australia Colonization, or colonisation, constitutes large-scale population movements wherein migrants maintain strong links with their, or their ancestors', former country – by such links, gain advantage over other inhabitants of the territory. When ...
starting in 1788, and the annexation of the
Torres Strait Islands The Torres Strait Islands are a group of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait, a waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They span an area of , but their total la ...
by the
colony of Queensland The Colony of Queensland was a colony of the British Empire from 1859 to 1901, when it became a State in the federal Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901. At its greatest extent, the colony included the present-day State of Queensland, ...
in the 1870s. ,
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...
peoples’ rights and interests in land are formally recognised over around 40 per cent of Australia’s land mass, and sea rights have also been asserted in various native title cases.


Description and distinctions

According to the Attorney-General's Department: Text was copied from this source, which is available under
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
licence (as pe
this page
.
Native title in Australia Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have righ ...
includes rights and interests relating to land and waters held by
Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...
under traditional laws and customs, and recognised in accordance with the ''
Native Title Act 1993 The ''Native Title Act 1993'' (Cth) is a law passed by the Australian Parliament, the purpose of which is "to provide a national system for the recognition and protection of native title and for its co-existence with the national land managem ...
'' (Cth). Although this is federal legislation and therefore applicable to the whole of
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
, the way in which the processes for
native title Aboriginal title is a common law doctrine that the land rights of indigenous peoples to customary tenure persist after the assumption of sovereignty under settler colonialism. The requirements of proof for the recognition of aboriginal title, ...
operate in each state and territory is dependent on the history of the land rights arrangements of the particular state or territory. In some jurisdictions, titles to large areas of traditional lands were granted before the Act commenced. The ''Native Title Act'' was passed after the
High Court of Australia The High Court of Australia is Australia's apex court. It exercises original and appellate jurisdiction on matters specified within Australia's Constitution. The High Court was established following passage of the '' Judiciary Act 1903''. ...
' decision in '' Mabo and others v. Queensland (No. 2)'', the test case in claiming land rights through the court system, which recognised for the first time that Indigenous people had rights to their land governed by their own laws and customs pre-dating colonisation by thousands of years. It recognised the dispossession of their lands, and in particular that their laws included land title (native title), and that Indigenous land rights which had not been extinguished by subsequent Crown grants continued to exist. Different types of land rights laws exist in Australia, allowing for the renewed ownership of land to Indigenous Australians under various conditions. Land rights schemes are in place in the
Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...
,
Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...
(including the Torres Strait Islands),
New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...
,
South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest o ...
,
Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...
and
Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...
. The land titles may recognise traditional interest in the land and protect those interests by giving Aboriginal people legal ownership of that land. Also, according to the
National Native Title Tribunal The National Native Title Tribunal (NNTT) is an independent body established under the ''Native Title Act 1993'' in Australia as a special measure for the advancement and protection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (Indigenous Aus ...
: "A successful land rights claim usually results in a special grant of freehold title or perpetual lease. A title document for the land is issued. The title is normally held by a community or an organisation, not by individuals. There are usually some restrictions on selling, and dealing with, land that has been granted in a land rights claim. Normally, the land will be passed down to future generations in a way that recognises the community’s traditional connection to that country". Indigenous land rights relate to the rights and interests in land of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...
in Australia, and the term is also used to describe the struggle for those rights. , Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ rights and interests in land are formally recognised over around 40 per cent of Australia’s land mass. The recognition of Indigenous rights in land and waters is fundamental to the process of
reconciliation Reconciliation or reconcile may refer to: Accounting * Reconciliation (accounting) Arts, entertainment, and media Sculpture * ''Reconciliation'' (Josefina de Vasconcellos sculpture), a sculpture by Josefina de Vasconcellos in Coventry Cathedra ...
. Text was copied from this source, which is available under
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
licence (as pe
this page
.


History

The colonisation of mainland Australia started in 1788, while the Torres Strait Islands were only taken over by the colony of Queensland in the 1870s. The
Letters Patent establishing the Province of South Australia The Letters Patent establishing the Province of South Australia, dated 19 February 1836 and formally titled "Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom erecting and establishing the Province of South Australia and fixing the bound ...
of 1836, which were issued during the period of
British colonisation of South Australia British colonisation of South Australia describes the planning and establishment of the colony of South Australia by the British government, covering the period from 1829, when the idea was raised by the then-imprisoned Edward Gibbon Wakefield ...
, included recognition of the rights of the Aboriginal peoples of South Australia – the first ever recognition of Aboriginal rights on the continent – but the promise was never kept. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the movement of Aboriginal peoples in Australia was controlled by colony- and later state-based laws, such as the '' Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897'' in
Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...
. This often meant that they were confined to living on
Aboriginal reserve An Aboriginal reserve, also called simply reserve, was a government-sanctioned settlement for Aboriginal Australians, created under various state and federal legislation. Along with missions and other institutions, they were used from the 19th c ...
s or
mission station A Christian mission is an organized effort for the propagation of the Christian faith. Missions involve sending individuals and groups across boundaries, most commonly geographical boundaries, to carry on evangelism or other activities, such as ...
s, where they had no rights to land ownership.


The struggle for land rights

The passing of Aboriginal land rights legislation in Australia in the late 20th century was preceded by a number of important Aboriginal protests. The modern land rights movement started with the 1963 Yolngu Bark Petition, when Yolngu people from the remote settlement of
Yirrkala Yirrkala is a small community in East Arnhem Region, Northern Territory, Australia, southeast of the large mining town of Nhulunbuy, on the Gove Peninsula in Arnhem Land. Its population comprises predominantly Aboriginal Australians of the ...
, in north-east
Arnhem Land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia, with the term still in use. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territory capital, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compa ...
, petitioned the federal government to have their land and rights given back. The 1966 Wave Hill Walk-Off, or Gurundji Strike, started with a protest about working conditions, but grew into a lands right issue, with the people claiming rights to the land which was then a
cattle station In Australia and New Zealand, a cattle station is a large farm ( station is equivalent to the American ranch), the main activity of which is the rearing of cattle. The owner of a cattle station is called a '' grazier''. The largest cattle stat ...
owned by a large British company,
Vesteys Vestey Holdings, formerly Vestey Group and previously also known as Vestey Brothers, is a privately-owned UK group of companies comprising an international business focused mainly on food products and services. The company has owned vast holdin ...
. The strike lasted for eight years. In 1961, at the Native Welfare Conference, a meeting of federal and state ministers responsible for Aboriginal welfare, agreed on a policy of
assimilation Assimilation may refer to: Culture * Cultural assimilation, the process whereby a minority group gradually adapts to the customs and attitudes of the prevailing culture and customs ** Language shift, also known as language assimilation, the prog ...
. The measures included the removal of discriminatory legislation and restrictive practices, welfare measures, education and training to assist the involvement of Aboriginal people in the economy, and the education of non-Indigenous Australians about Aboriginal culture and
history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
. It brought about a more widespread awareness by non-Indigenous people to social justice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. South Australian Premier Sir Thomas Playford argued for integration rather than assimilation of Aboriginal people, and others questioned the concept of assimilation, with its paternalistic attitude. The ''
Aboriginal Lands Trust Act 1966 The ''Aboriginal Lands Trust Act 1966'' is the short title of an Act of the Parliament of South Australia, assented to on 8 December 1966, with the long title "An Act to establish an Aboriginal Lands Trust, to define the powers and function ...
'' (SA) established the South Australian
Aboriginal Lands Trust In Australia, an Aboriginal land trust (ALT) is a type of non-profit organisation that holds the freehold title to an area of land on behalf of a community of Aboriginal Australians. The land has been legally granted to a community by the governme ...
(ALT).Aboriginal Lands Trust Act 1966
South Australian Acts (Point-in-Time). Retrieved on 29 January 2012.
This was the first major recognition of
Aboriginal land rights Indigenous land rights are the rights of Indigenous peoples to land and natural resources therein, either individually or collectively, mostly in colonised countries. Land and resource-related rights are of fundamental importance to Indigenou ...
by any Australian government, and predated the 1967 Referendum. It allowed for parcels of Aboriginal land previously held by the SA Government, to be handed to the Aboriginal Lands Trust of SA under the Act. The Trust was governed by a Board composed solely of Aboriginal people.


1970s activism and legislation

In the 1970s, Indigenous Australians became more politically active, and a powerful movement for the recognition of Indigenous land rights emerged. Also during this decade, the federal government started buying privately-owned land in order to benefit Indigenous communities, and also to create
Crown land Crown land (sometimes spelled crownland), also known as royal domain, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it ...
which would be available for claim. In 1971, Justice
Richard Blackburn Sir Richard Arthur Blackburn, (26 July 1918 – 1 October 1987) was an Australian judge, prominent legal academic and military officer. He became a judge of three courts in Australia, and eventually became chief justice of the Australian Capit ...
of the
Supreme Court of the Northern Territory The Supreme Court of the Northern Territory is the superior court for the Australian Territory of the Northern Territory. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the territory in civil matters, and hears the most serious criminal matters. It is ...
ruled against the Yolngu in '' Milirrpum v Nabalco Pty Ltd'' (the "Gove land rights case") under the principle of ''
terra nullius ''Terra nullius'' (, plural ''terrae nullius'') is a Latin expression meaning " nobody's land". It was a principle sometimes used in international law to justify claims that territory may be acquired by a state's occupation of it. : : ...
'', when they sought native title rights over the Gove Peninsula. However, Justice Blackburn did acknowledge the claimants' ritual and economic use of the land and that they had an established system of law "a subtle and highly elaborate" system of laws ('' Madayin''). In this way, this was the first significant legal case for Aboriginal land rights in Australia.


Aboriginal Tent Embassy

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy was set up on the front lawns of
Old Parliament House, Canberra Old Parliament House, formerly known as the Provisional Parliament House, was the seat of the Parliament of Australia from 1927 to 1988. The building began operation on 9 May 1927 after Parliament's relocation from Melbourne to the new capit ...
on 26 January (
Australia Day Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Observed annually on 26 January, it marks the 1788 landing of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove and raising of the Union Flag by Arthur Phillip following days of exploration of Port ...
) 1972, by four Aboriginal activists, Michael Anderson, Billy Craigie, Tony Coorey and Bertie Williams (later Kevin "Bert" Johnson, as protest for Indigenous land rights. The embassy was established in response to the
McMahon McMahon, also spelled MacMahon (older Irish orthography: ; reformed Irish orthography: ), is a surname of Irish origin. It is derived from the Gaelic ''Mac'' ''Mathghamhna'' meaning 'son of the bear'. The surname came into use around the 11th ce ...
Coalition A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces. Formation According to ''A Gui ...
Government's refusal to recognise
Aboriginal land rights Indigenous land rights are the rights of Indigenous peoples to land and natural resources therein, either individually or collectively, mostly in colonised countries. Land and resource-related rights are of fundamental importance to Indigenou ...
or
native title in Australia Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have righ ...
, instead offering 50-year general-purpose leases for Aboriginal people which would be conditional upon their "intention and ability to make reasonable economic and social use of land", while reserving for the Crown rights to minerals and
forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests, woodlands, and associated resources for human and environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands. ...
.


Black Moratorium

The Black Moratorium refers to protests which took place on 14 July 1972. The Sydney protest was in the form of marches from Redfern,
Sydney University The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's six ...
and other points, to Sydney Town Hall, attended by around 6,000 protesters, who included Aboriginal people, students and trade unionists.
Gary Foley Gary Edward Foley (born 1950) is an Aboriginal Australian activist of the Gumbainggir people, academic, writer and actor. He is best known for his role in establishing the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra in 1972 and for establishing an Abo ...
printed a pamphlet at Sydney University ahead of the protest. Unionists from several trades, including builders' labourers, ship painters, dockers and teachers, had voted to go on strike for half a day in support of Aboriginal people, and around 2,000 students joined the protest. There were also protests in Newcastle,
Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...
, and Darwin, all under the rallying cry of " Ningla-A-na" (
Arrernte Arrernte (also spelt Aranda, etc.) is a descriptor related to a group of Aboriginal Australian peoples from Central Australia. It may refer to: * Arrernte (area), land controlled by the Arrernte Council (?) * Arrernte people, Aboriginal Australi ...
for "hungry land"). The demands of the protesters were, specifically: The moratorium as a tactic was copied from the campaign against the Vietnam War: a weekday protest meant that union supporters would need to convince others in their workplace about why solidarity with Aboriginal people was an important issue for their movement. Striking would both disrupt the economy and show strong conviction and understanding of the struggle, and the discussion put Black rights into workplaces, staff rooms and classrooms. It was later assessed as one of the most successful and historically significant protests for Aboriginal rights in Australia until this time. Its legacy included the establishments of networks which led to thousands of people defending the Tent Embassy against attempts by police to shut it down, and union funding helped keep the embassy running. The Moratorium showed that non-Indigenous workers could be strong allies in the struggle for Indigenous rights.
Bruce McGuinness Bruce Brian McGuinness (17 June 1939 – 5 September 2003) was an Australian Aboriginal activist. He was active in and led the Victorian Aborigines Advancement League, and is known for founding and running ''The Koorier'', which was the first A ...
published an article in the November issue of '' Aboriginal and Islander Identity'' magazine about the march in
Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...
, which was attended by about 2000 people, including an estimated 16% of the Black population. It also had a heavy police presence.


''Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976''

In the wake of ''Milirrpum'', the Aboriginal Land Rights Commission (also known as the "Woodward Royal Commission") was established in the Northern Territory in 1973. This Royal Commission, chaired by Justice Woodward, made a number of recommendations in favour of recognising Aboriginal Land Rights. Taking up many of these recommendations, the Whitlam government introduced an Aboriginal Land Rights Bill to Parliament; however, this lapsed upon the dismissal of the government in 1975. The succeeding conservative government, led by
Malcolm Fraser John Malcolm Fraser (; 21 May 1930 – 20 March 2015) was an Australian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Australia from 1975 to 1983, holding office as the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. Fraser was raised on hi ...
, reintroduced a Bill, though not of the same content, and it was signed by the
Governor-General of Australia The governor-general of Australia is the representative of the monarch, currently King Charles III, in Australia.PDF of original version
/ref> The '' Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976'' established the basis upon which Aboriginal people in the
Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...
could claim rights to land based on traditional occupation. The statute, the first of the Aboriginal land rights acts, was significant in that it allowed a claim of title if claimants could provide evidence of their traditional association with land. Four Land Councils were established in the Northern Territory under this law. The ''Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976'' established a procedure that transferred almost 50 per cent of land in the Northern Territory (around 600 000 km2) to collective Aboriginal ownership.
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Australia) The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is the department of the Australian federal government responsible for foreign policy and relations, international aid (using the branding Australian Aid), consular services and trade and ...

Aboriginal land rights and native title
, retrieved 30 January 2012.
Following this, some states introduced their own land rights legislation; however, there were significant limitations on the returned lands, or that available for claim. Paul Coe, in ''Coe v Commonwealth'' (1979), attempted (unsuccessfully) to bring a
class action A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...
on behalf of all "Aborigines" claiming all of Australia.


1980s South Australia

In 1981 South Australian Premier
David Tonkin David Oliver Tonkin AO (20 July 1929 – 2 October 2000) was an Australian politician who served as the 38th Premier of South Australia from 18 September 1979 to 10 November 1982. He was elected to the House of Assembly seat of Bragg at the 1 ...
returned of land (10.2% of the state's land area) to the Pitjantjara/ Yankunytjatjara people, as the
APY lands Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara, also known as APY, APY Lands or ''the Lands'', is a large, sparsely-populated local government area (LGA) for Aboriginal people, located in the remote north west of South Australia. Some of the aṉangu ...
. The land rights legislation was introduced by Premier Don Dunstan in November 1978, several months prior to his resignation from Parliament. An amended bill, following extensive consultation, was passed by the Tonkin Liberal Government, as the ''
Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Land Rights Act 1981 The ''Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Land Rights Act 1981'' (APYLRA or ''APY Land Rights Act'') grants certain land and other rights to the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people) in South ...
''. In 1984 Premier
John Bannon John Charles Bannon (7 May 1943 – 13 December 2015) was an Australian politician and academic. He was the 39th Premier of South Australia, leading the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party from a single term in opposition ba ...
's Labor Government passed the '' Maralinga Tjarutja Land Rights Act 1984'' to return lands to the Pitjantjara people in the remote western area of the state. The legislation was proclaimed in January 1985 and was followed by a ceremony in the desert attended by Maralinga Tjarutja leader Archie Barton, John Bannon and Aboriginal Affairs Minister
Greg Crafter Gregory John Crafter (born 16 September 1944) is a former South Australian Labor Party politician. He was the member for Norwood from 1979 to 1993, with a short break from September 1979 to February 1980. Crafter was elected in a March 1979 ...
.


1995: Indigenous Land Corporation

In 1995 the
Indigenous Land Corporation The Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation (ILSC) is an Australian federal government statutory authority with national responsibilities to assist Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to acquire land and to manage assets to achieve cultura ...
(ILC) was established by the Federal Government to assist Aboriginal Australians to acquire land and manage Aboriginal held land sustainably and in a manner that provides cultural, social, economic and environmental benefits for themselves and future generations. In February 2019, the ILC became the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation (ILSC), in recognition of its operations on water. The ILSC is funded by an annual payment from the investment returns of the Australian Government's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Land Account.


Indigenous land tenure by state and territory


Northern Territory

The '' Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976'' (see above) provides the basis upon which Aboriginal Australian people in the Northern Territory can claim rights to land based on traditional occupation. The freehold land cannot be sold or transferred, but it can be leased.


Queensland

In Queensland, the '' Aboriginal Land Act 1991'' and the '' Torres Strait Islander Land Act 1991'' provide for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander freehold respectively. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander freehold land occupies 5%, or of
northern Queensland North Queensland or the Northern Region is the northern part of the Australian state of Queensland that lies just south of Far North Queensland. Queensland is a massive state, larger than many countries, and its tropical northern part has been ...
. A
Registered Native Title Body Corporate A Registered Native Title Body Corporate (RNTBC) is a corporation nominated by a group of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people for the purposes of native title in Australia, to represent their native title rights and interests, once that ...
(RNTBC) can be trustee of this land, who can grant leases of up to 99 years for any purpose. A third type of
land tenure In common law systems, land tenure, from the French verb "tenir" means "to hold", is the legal regime in which land owned by an individual is possessed by someone else who is said to "hold" the land, based on an agreement between both individual ...
, mainly held by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in remote and regional Queensland, is the
Deed of Grant in Trust A Deed of Grant in Trust (DOGIT) is the name for a system of community-level land trust established in Queensland to administer former Aboriginal reserves and missions. They came about through the enactment by the Queensland Government of the '' ...
(DOGIT). These were established primarily to administer former
Aboriginal reserve An Aboriginal reserve, also called simply reserve, was a government-sanctioned settlement for Aboriginal Australians, created under various state and federal legislation. Along with missions and other institutions, they were used from the 19th c ...
s and missions. They came about through legislation passed by the
Queensland Government The Queensland Government is the democratic administrative authority of the Australian state of Queensland. The Government of Queensland, a parliamentary constitutional monarchy was formed in 1859 as prescribed in its Constitution, as amended f ...
in 1984. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander local governments hold trusteeship of the DOGITs, and land tenure under this type of tenure is held in collective title, held in trust for future generations. From 1 January 2015, some trustees, namely those classified as "urban" or "future urban") are able to convert parts of the collective title to either Aboriginal freehold or Torres Strait Islander freehold title. Mer (Murray) Island (the subject of the Mabo No.1 (1988) and No.2 (1992) cases) is Torres Strait Islander freehold and Aurukun is Aboriginal freehold land.


South Australia

In the 2013 Review of the ''Aboriginal Lands Trust Act 1966'', the powers of the Trust were reviewed and changed to modernise the Trust and the ''
Aboriginal Lands Trust of South Australia Act 2013 Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to: *Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology * Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area *One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...
'' (SA) was passed.


Western Australia

The
Aboriginal Lands Trust In Australia, an Aboriginal land trust (ALT) is a type of non-profit organisation that holds the freehold title to an area of land on behalf of a community of Aboriginal Australians. The land has been legally granted to a community by the governme ...
(ALT) of Western Australia was established by the ''Aboriginal Affairs Planning Authority Act 1972''. This body holds about , or 10% of the State's land. There are different types of tenures held by different parts of this land, including reserves, leases and freehold property. There are many remote communities on this land, inhabited by about 12,000 people. Land reform is ongoing, to use the land in a way which benefits the Aboriginal people.


Freemen/sovereign state movement

Since the 2010s, there has been a growing number of
freemen on the land The freeman on the land movement (sometimes spelled freeman-on-the-land or abbreviated as FOTL), also known as the freemen of the land, the freemen movement, or simply freemen, is a loose group of individuals who adhere to pseudolegal concepts ...
/ sovereign citizen groups targeting Indigenous Australians, with groups with names like Tribal Sovereign Parliament of Gondwana Land, the Original Sovereign Tribal Federation (OSTF) and the Original Sovereign Confederation. OSTF Founder Mark McMurtrie, an Aboriginal Australian man, has produced
YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
videos speaking about “common law”, which incorporate Freemen beliefs. Appealing to other Aboriginal people by partly identifying with the land rights movement, McMurtrie played on their feelings of alienation and lack of trust in the systems which had not served Indigenous people well. Proponents of the original ideas are often related to far-right movements, whose core beliefs may be broadly defined as "see ngthe state as a
corporation A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and ...
with no authority over free citizens".


See also

*
Aboriginal land rights legislation in Australia Commonwealth, State, and Territory Parliaments of Australia have passed Aboriginal land rights legislation. ''Pitjantjatjara Lands Act 1956'' (SA) The South Australian ''Pitjantjatjara Lands Act 1956'' granted land to the Pitjantjatjara people, b ...
*
Aboriginal land rights Indigenous land rights are the rights of Indigenous peoples to land and natural resources therein, either individually or collectively, mostly in colonised countries. Land and resource-related rights are of fundamental importance to Indigenou ...
*
Aboriginal reserves An Aboriginal reserve, also called simply reserve, was a government-sanctioned settlement for Aboriginal Australians, created under various state and federal legislation. Along with missions and other institutions, they were used from the 19th ce ...
* Australian Aboriginal Sovereignty *
Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders The Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI), founded in Adelaide, South Australia, as the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement (FCAA) on 16 February 1958, was a civil rights organisation which ...
* Indigenous treaties in Australia *
Native title in Australia Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have righ ...
*
Land Back Land Back (or #LandBack) is a campaign by Indigenous people in the United States and in Canada that seeks to re-establish Indigenous sovereignty - notably, the political and economic control of lands in what is now the United States and Cana ...
(reclaiming Indigenous jurisdiction - United States)


References


Further reading

* * * * * * * * – refers to ''Fejo v Northern Territory'' (1998) 195 CLR 96. (This case is based on s 61 ''Native Title Act 1993'' (Cth).) {{Aboriginal Australians Indigenous Australian politics Australian Indigenous law