They have a profound spiritual connection to land. 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 very important to Aboriginal people with the common belief of 'we don't own the land, the land owns us'. Aboriginal people have always had a spiritual connection to their land, and because of this connection many Aboriginal people will not leave their country.
Aboriginal Peoples have a deep connection with land and waters with Country, which is central to their spiritual identity, and have maintained this connection despite the devastating impacts of colonisation and forced removal. Cultural Heritage is the legacy we inherited from our Ancestors.
The land underpins kinship and community identity. The land defines community groups and language groups. Language groups are an expression of community identity. Aboriginal people do not own the land they are custodians of it.
Land rights
Under this Act, traditional owners hold decision-making powers over the use of Aboriginal land. Land Councils assist traditional owners to acquire and manage their land. Royalty equivalents for mining activity on Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory are paid to the Aboriginals Benefit Account.
The Aboriginal Land Rights Act, 1983 (ALRA) provides land rights for Aboriginal people in NSW.
Billionaire mining magnate Gina Rinehart owns the most land at 9.7m ha but is topped by five other companies including two foreign groups by worth. The 1.22m ha Brunette Downs in the NT, owned by the seventh biggest agricultural land owner, the Australian Agricultural Company.
In Australia and New Zealand, land is predominantly held under the Torrens Title system, although remnants of General Law Title (deeds of conveyance) still remain. All land in the Australian Capital Territory is leasehold (effectively Torrens freehold) and much of the Northern Territory is held under Crown lease.
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).
For Indigenous Australians, Age Pension: 53%, Total: 53%, JobSeeker Payment: 28%, Youth Allowance (other): 20%, Disability Support Pension: 10%, Youth Allowance (student and apprentice): 1%, Parenting Payment (single): 8%, Carer Payment: 3%, Parenting Payment (partnered): 2%, ABSTUDY (Living Allowance): 2%.
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.
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.
Aboriginal origins
Humans are thought to have migrated to Northern Australia from Asia using primitive boats. A current theory holds that those early migrants themselves came out of Africa about 70,000 years ago, which would make Aboriginal Australians the oldest population of humans living outside Africa.
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.
There are some amounts don't need to be include as income in your tax return. 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 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.
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.
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 NLC manages the receipt and disbursement of royalty monies to Aboriginal people. The NLC maintains a royalty trust account that receives monies on behalf of individuals and associations of Aboriginal people and disperses them in accordance with section 35(2), (3) & (4) of the Land Rights Act.
A trespasser can make a claim for the title of a piece of land and their claim can be successful if they have occupied it for a considerable period of time. This is generally referred to as “Squatter's rights” but in law it is known as adverse possession.
CANBERRA (Reuters) - More than 40 percent of Australia, an area the size of India, remains untouched by humans, making the country as critical to the world's environment as the Amazon rainforests, a study said on Wednesday.
Despite the belief held by many Australian landholders that they own their land absolutely, including anything above or below it, due to the Doctrine of Tenure, the law in Australia holds that the Crown has absolute ownership - not withstanding any native title claims.
Currently, 14.1 per cent of Australia's agricultural land is foreign owned, and China is the largest foreign owner (2.3 per cent). China is also the third-largest stakeholder of Australian water behind Canada and the US, owning 604 gigalitres or 1.5 per cent of the total Australian water entitlement.
volumes of foreign-owned water
The top four owners of water entitlements by country are Canada with 2.0 percent of the total Australian water entitlement on issue, the US with 1.6 percent, China with 1.5 percent, and the UK with 1.0 percent.
Australian Financial Review's annual rich list. Mining magnate Gina Rinehart has once again been crowned Australia's richest person, as a boom in iron ore prices lifted her personal net wealth to $34 billion.