Land returned to Eastern Maar people in Victoria's first native title decision in a decade. Victoria's first native title determination in a decade has been made, returning rights to a stretch of land – including parts of the coastline of the Great Ocean Road – to the Eastern Maar peoples in the state's south-west.
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.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' rights and interests in land are formally recognised over around 50 per cent of Australia's land mass. Connection to land is of central importance to First Nations Australians.
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. Since 1966, the Gurindji people had been on strike against Vestey's – the agricultural business occupying the land.
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).
The FIRB approval threshold for the USA, UK or most other countries that want to buy Australian farmland is $1.2 billion, 80 times that of China's. On paper, China is the second largest landowner in Australia, with 9.2 million hectares, just behind the UK with 10.2 million hectares.
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.
Aboriginal law and spirituality are intertwined with the land, the people and creation, and this forms their culture and sovereignty. The health of land and water is central to their culture. Land is their mother, is steeped in their culture, but also gives them the responsibility to care for it.
In the 1860s, Victoria became the first state to pass laws authorising Aboriginal children to be removed from their parents. Similar policies were later adopted by other states and territories – and by the federal government when it was established in the 1900s.
Of the $560.0 million over 4 years Support for Community Sector Organisations measure, the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) receives $47.5 million per year (p. 84). This funding, which community groups can apply for 'on merit', seeks to mitigate rising costs such as inflation and wage pressures.
The Aboriginal population in Australia is estimated to 745,000 individuals or 3 per cent of the total population of 24,220,200.
One Nation NSW has proposed to abolish self-identification and introduce a “new system” relying on DNA ancestry testing with a result requiring a finding of at least 25 per cent "Indigenous" before First Nations identification is accepted.
The British settlers used the doctrine of terra nullius to expropriate native lands through violence; according to this doctrine, Australia belonged to no one and as indigenous people did not have concept of law of ownership, they did not have rights to land.
A common misconception about Indigenous people before European settlement in Australia was that they were no more than a hunter-gatherer society. Indigenous Australians were one of Earth's earliest farmers. Growing crops, making traps for fishing, and replenishing the land to make hunting easier.
In essence, Return to Country is about strengthening an Aboriginal child or young person's Cultural Connections and the relatedness between cultural values, beliefs and practices, Country, personal identity, family, clan and community, history, symbolism, cultural expression and events as illustrated below.
From 1788, Australia was treated by the British as a colony of settlement, not of conquest. Aboriginal land was taken over by British colonists on the premise that the land belonged to no-one ('terra nullius').
The First Fleet of British ships arrived at Botany Bay in January 1788 to establish a penal colony, the first colony on the Australian mainland. In the century that followed, the British established other colonies on the continent, and European explorers ventured into its interior.
In Australia, 812,000 people identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander in the 2021 Census of Population and Housing. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people represented 3.2% of the population. This was up from 2.8% in 2016, and 2.5% in 2011.
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.
This history of injustice has meant that many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have been denied access to basic human rights, such as rights to health, housing, employment and education. Did you know that there were over 250 distinct Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages at the time of colonisation?
Land rights schemes are in place in the Northern Territory, Queensland (including the Torres Strait Islands), New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania. The land titles may recognise traditional interest in the land and protect those interests by giving Aboriginal people legal ownership of that land.
The New South Wales Stolen Generations Reparations Scheme provides ex-gratia payments of $75,000 to living Stolen Generations survivors who were removed from their families and committed to the care of the New South Wales Aborigines Protection or Welfare Boards.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and Indigenous holding entities don't need to pay income tax or capital gains tax on native title payments or benefits.
The three criteria 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.