deem it timely from 1912 on to have aboriginals release the right to which they could lay claim"…
In this journal article Mercer, discusses the on-going debate surrounding Indigenous Australians land rights claims from the mid-1980s onwards. He then goes on to discuss that the law surrounding land always adhered to the principles of Governor Bourke’s’ Proclamation, until the landmark decision handed down in the Mabo case. However, he concludes that in regard to political climate little else has been done in the advancement of land rights’ legislation in regard to the Indigenous Australian population. He also provides a comparison between how Australia and Canada have responded to Indigenous claims of land, saying that Canada has acted far…
On the back of the recent landslide referendum on the recognition of Aboriginal people in the national census, the Whitlam government greatly increased the social and political rights of first nation Australians. The government instituted a policy of ‘self-determination’ which decentralised decision making powers to indigenous communities. They allowed Aboriginals to claim land and brought more Indigenous voices into the policy making process. From the outset, Whitlam made Indigenous affairs a top priority for his government and indicated that justice had to be served in order for Australia to move forward as a country. The subsequent Fraser Government committed to continue these reforms. A powerful example Whitlam’s loyalty to this issue was in his remarks to an Aboriginal tribe where he declared Indigenous ownership of a Victorian river. Whitlam in his speech to the Gurindji people stated “these lands belong to the Gurindji people and I put into your hands this piece of the earth itself as a sign that we restore them to you and your children…
In today’s modern Canadian society every group is fighting for their rights to be heard, acknowledged and more importantly respected. In Canadian history one group has had to fight harder than anyone else to receive a voice to be heard and that is the Aboriginals. The question that needs to be asked is, do they really have a voice at all? Throughout this paper I will highlight three areas of aboriginal political uprising, First the history, secondly successful initiatives for the betterment of aboriginals and finally unsuccessful actions in the political landscape.…
‘Australian spirit’ is a term often thrown around when discussing relevant social matters such as the global refugee crisis, immigration and Aboriginal issues. To many, it is synonymous with the concept of ‘mateship’, a laidback, friendly attitude. The significance of proposing to introduce recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (ATSI peoples) into the Constitution is that it embodies the ‘Australian spirit’. The Constitution is the foundation of Australian society, as it determines laws which affect all citizens. If the Constitution cannot recognise the owners of the land in a document that is so effectual, then the validity of the ‘Australian spirit’ must be questioned.…
This argument analysis examines the article Recognise What? Problems with the campaign for constitutional recognition (Maddison, 2017). Published in the May/June issue of the Indigenous Law Bulletin, Maddison describes the process to recognise Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders as the first people of Australia in the constitution. The article explains this process through several accounts, resistance to the campaign and the role of the ‘Recognise’ campaign. Throughout the article, Maddison argues that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders should be recognised as the first people of Australia while acknowledging the problems with the campaign. The analysis will identify the main claims, evidence used to support these claims and the assumptions made by the author. Maddison uses several forms of evidence to support her 3 main claims and the underlying assumptions.…
Since 1918, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (ATSI) have achieved a great deal of change in both political and social ways, though it was not without struggle. Many of these achievements are derived from several events, such as the Mabo Decision which was the long battle that lead to the recognition of Aboriginal land rights. Other events also contributed, such as the long process of reconciling the relationships between ATSI peoples and Australians, the Bringing Them Home Report which helped lead to the Apology. All of these events are important in Aboriginal culture as they all inspired change in the Australian community.…
This time of history was very important because Indian’s needed their independence from the Americans. They needed their independence from the Americans because before the Americans even came to North America the Native Americans had already settled in the place. The Native Americans were furious when the American had forced them off their land.…
Australia’s attitude towards the rights and freedoms of Aboriginals has changed drastically from 1920 to the present. It is evident that Australia has made a greater effort throughout the years, to bridge the gap between the rights and of Aboriginals and the rest of Australia. This has been improved by the implementation of different policies such as the Protection policy, Assimilation, Integration, Self Determination and Reconciliation.…
In modern society the question of why the aboriginal population receives benefits often arises. Much of today’s youth does not understand that the Native American people were often stripped of their rights in the past in order to gain these advantages. Two main incidents were established in the Aboriginal history, the first was the treaties that spread across Canada and the second incident was the Indian Act of 1876. The main difference between the Indian Act and treaties were the aboriginal’s role in the decision-making. Treaties allowed for a compromise between the Natives and the government that allowed for benefits on both ends whereas the Indian act was imposed on the Native culture by the Canadian government without any arrangement with the aboriginals.…
Sparrow was charged under s. 61(1) of the Fisheries Act with the offence of fishing with a drift net longer than permitted by the terms of the Indian Food Fishing License. Sparrow admitted to committing the act, but claimed that he has the aboriginal right to fish under s. 31(1) of the Fisheries Act. Therefore, the Act is inconsistent with s. 35(1) of the Constitution Act, 1982 and is invalid. He was unsuccessful in the lower courts and appealed to the Supreme Court.…
Native Americans were forced out of the land by treaties created by American leaders and the spokesperson for the native Americans they wanted to ensure peace and honesty between the two groups for the native Americans land to continue the trade for fur without any problems or difficulties many Americans were eager to stake claim on the native Americans territories. This erupted in many attacks and confrontations. The treaty convinced the native Americans to give, transfer, yield broad huge amounts of land to the U.S. government. To understand the point or reasons behind the treaty was that native Americans were seasonal hunters that only hunted for game and it was not necessary for them to have land. These reasons were fictional because many…
The referendum was a massive achievement for Indigenous Australians with 90% of the Australian population voting Yes for these two parts of the Australian Constitution to be over ruled and changed. Although this was a major event in the reconciliation process to bringing non indigenous and indigeonous people together it would be naive to think that this eradicated the racism and discrimination all together. These significant and monumental events in the history of reconciliation in Australia were significant cornerstones in the development of justice, rights and equality however the transition period was often challenging for the indigenous Australians as they had to adjust to a culturally different way of life. This was often not recognised within the Australian community causing confusion and further divide in the way in which the Australian public view and thought reconciliation consisted of. The referendum however provided a platform of hope for the future of reconciliation in Australia as it symbolised a political step towards rights and justice for the indigenous…
The Royal Proclamation of 1763, and the Constitution Act, 1982 that reaffirmed the existing rights of Aboriginals, both establish that it is legitimate for Aboriginal self-government to be located at the national level. A nation-to-nation relationship shows the greatest respect for the sovereignty of the Aboriginal peoples and therefore have the greatest legitimacy. However, it would impossible for Aboriginal groups to make a direct transition from federal jurisdiction to full sovereignty, as they often lack the efficient capacity to self-govern, and there is no clear consensus among the rest of Canadians, about the form that self-government should take.…
Eddie Mabo was born Eddie Koiki Sambo but changed his name later on in life, he was born on Mer Island (Murray Island) in the Torres Strait in 1936. His mother died during infancy which left him to be raised by his uncle; Benny Mabo. After a teenage prank that ended badly, Eddie was exiled from his home which ended up in him living in Townsville and working on the railways. Through his work he met a number of other people like himself and soon became a spokesperson for the railway workers and frequently voiced their opinions to trade union officials. Eddie opened the first black school in the area which was how he started making a difference to the people in his community. He married Bonita Neehow when he was 23 in 1959; they went on to raise ten children. By the time he was 31 years old Eddie got work as a gardener at James Cook University. He began to join in with the university life; he would sit in seminars, go to the library and read books about what white people said about his own people. In 1981 a Land Rights’ conference was held at the university, in which Eddie made a speech about land ownership and land inheritance on his home island. There was a lawyer at the conference who suggested that there should be a test case to claim land rights. The people of Murray Island decided that they would be the ones to challenge the claim of terra nullius in the High Court, Eddie was chosen as leader for this. It took ten years and after investigation the court found out that Eddie was not actually the son of Benny Mabo and so had no right to inherit Mabo land. He was devastated by this but did not give up; he perused the matter and appealed it to the High Court of Australia. Eddie died of cancer in January 1992 aged 52, five months after his death on the 3rd of June the…
