Submitted by: Submitted by khrisnadia
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Pages: 4
Category: World History
Date Submitted: 03/21/2009 08:22 PM
Introduction.
When captain cook laid claim to the East coast of Australia he said that Australia belonged to no-one, terra nullius. Before 1971, land rights of aboriginal people didn’t exist. They had no control and no one acknowledges their ownership of the land. During the Whitlam government, aboriginal people were given opportunities to control their own affairs and they gained some access to justice in society.
Background Info.
In 1971 the Yirrakala people challenged the northern territory government to stop them from having the right to allow Nabalco Limited to mine bauxite on traditional Yirrkala land in which contained sacred sites. The Yirrkala people had lost the case as Australian Courts were still bound to the terra nullius principle, and due to this the Aboriginal Advancement League asked the UN to support them. But in 1972, prime minister William McMahon denied land rights or compensation to Australia’s Indegenous people. He also said that he would continue to allow mining on aboriginal reserves.
This case had led to the establishment of the woodward aboriginal land right commission that existed from 1973 - 1974 in the northern territory, that recognised the Aboriginal Land Rights. In 1975, just before he was dismissed, prime minister Gough Whitlam drew up the Aboriginal Land Rights (northern territory) act that eventually was passed by the Fraser government.
What is Land Rights?
The Australian Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act was established into law on 16 December 1976. This act allowed the Aboriginal People of NT to claim the rights to land based on traditional occupation. However the claimants of the land were to provide evidence of their traditional association with the land. This act was the first of the Australian Land Rights Acts.
An example of the success that the indigenous people had with gaining land rights is the Wik case. In the 1900s, Australia was dividing the nation over the issue of race. While all this was going...