Native title legislation and land right movements

Question 1

Land rights movement

Answer 1

Aboriginal land-rights movement is a religious-political movement that seeks to secure the inherent rights of Aboriginal peoples to their land and to ensure that their religious, spiritual and cultural integrity is preserved. Recognising inextricable connection to land

Question 2

Native Title

Answer 2

legal term that recognises Aboriginal people so they can continue to express their spirituality. The native title process, “gives Indigenous people a seat at the negotiating table” but “there is always room for improvement” (John Sosso 2009).

Question 3

Mabo case #2 (1992)

Answer 3

overturning the legal fiction of “terra nullius”, land belonging to no one, land belonged to the First Nations people who had a reciprocal relationship, “land is mother”.

Question 4

Native Title Act 1993

Answer 4

respond federally in which the legislation allowed Indigenous people to reclaim the land that was taken away from them, if they could prove an unbroken continuous connection. This act recognised Aboriginal people so they could express their identity and spirituality through access to land.

Question 5

Wik decision 1996

Answer 5

Indigenous peoples are now members of the bodies created and possess legal authority to manage land rights claims, recognising the importance of inclusion in the decision-making process.