In December 1976 the federal parliament passed the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act. It was the first legislation in Australia that enabled First Nations peoples to claim land rights for Country where traditional ownership could be proven.
The Aboriginal Land Rights Act, 1983 (ALRA) provides land rights for Aboriginal people in NSW. The principle of self-determination underpins the ALRA.
Aboriginal communities in NSW can claim land to compensate them for historic dispossession of land and to support their social and economic development. The Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 (ALRA) was introduced to compensate Aboriginal people in NSW for dispossession of their land.
The land is a link between all aspects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's existence - spirituality, culture, language, family, law and identity. Each person is entrusted with the cultural knowledge and responsibility to care for the land they identify with through kinship systems.
There are 37,000 unresolved Aboriginal land claims in New South Wales awaiting determination by the government, including the first claim lodged under the land rights act in 1984. The backlog has been described as “a national disgrace” and a form of institutional racism.
The Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 has resulted in almost 50 per cent of the Northern Territory being returned to Aboriginal peoples. Some state governments followed the lead of the Australian Government and introduced their own land rights legislation.
Indigenous people have the right to live in freedom, peace and security. They must be free from genocide and other acts of violence including the removal of their children by force (Article Seven). Indigenous peoples have the right to practice and revitalise their cultural traditions and customs (Article Eleven).
European colonisation had a devastating impact on Aboriginal communities and cultures. Aboriginal people were subjected to a range of injustices, including mass killings or being displaced from their traditional lands and relocated on missions and reserves in the name of protection.
For over 50,000 years, Australia's Indigenous community cared for country by using land management that worked with the environment. Using traditional burning, fishing traps, and sowing and storing plants, they were able to create a system that was sustainable and supplied them with the food they needed.
The largest speaker numbers are: Djambarrpuyngu (one of the large group of Yolŋu languages spoken in Arnhem Land - 4,264 speakers) Pitjantjatjara (one of the large group of Western Desert languages - 3,054 speakers) Warlpiri (spoken in Central Australia - 2,276 speakers)
Many Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory have won their land back through grants under the Land Rights Act. Getting freehold title allows them to maintain, and sometimes re-establish, their cultural identity.
Membership of the Indigenous people depends on biological descent from the Indigenous people and on mutual recognition of a particular person's membership by that person and by the elders or other persons enjoying traditional authority among those people.
These are: being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent. identifying as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person. being accepted as such by the community in which you live, or formerly lived.
In 2017, the Uluru Statement from the Heart was released which stated that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes were the original sovereign nations of the land of Australia. This sovereignty is of a spiritual nature and has never been ceded or extinguished, instead co-existing with the sovereignty of the Crown.
Proportion of all land that is Indigenous owned or controlled. Nationally as at June 2022, 16.1 per cent of Australia's land area was owned or controlled by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This is unchanged from the same time in the previous two years (June 2020 and 2021) (figure SE15a. 1).
In December 1976 the federal parliament passed the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act. It was the first legislation in Australia that enabled First Nations peoples to claim land rights for Country where traditional ownership could be proven.
Between 11,000 and 14,000 Aboriginal people died, compared with only 399 to 440 colonisers. The tallies of the dead are not the only measure of what took place, according to Dr Bill Pascoe, a digital humanities specialist and key researcher on the project. “We are always using conservative estimates,” Pascoe said.
Why were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children taken from their families? The forcible removal of First Nations children from their families was based on assimilation policies, which claimed that the lives of First Nations people would be improved if they became part of white society.
On August 16, 1975, Gough Whitlam returned traditional lands in the Northern Territory to the Gurindji people. This brought an end to their long struggle to reclaim their traditional country.
There is no one Aboriginal word that all Aborigines use for Australia; however, today they call Australia, ""Australia"" because that is what it is called today. There are more than 250 aboriginal tribes in Australia. Most of them didn't have a word for ""Australia""; they just named places around them.
Aboriginal customary law developed over time from accepted moral and social norms within Indigenous societies. They regulate human behaviour, mandate specific sanctions for non-compliance, and connect people with the land and with each other, through a system of relationships.
Indigenous peoples and individuals are free and equal to all other peoples and individuals and have the right to be free from any kind of discrimination, in the exercise of their rights, in particular that based on their indigenous origin or identity.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples hold distinct cultural rights and must not be denied the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their culture, and to have their traditional connections with land, waters and resources recognised and valued.