Aboriginal Land Rights Act example essay topic

since 1788, the newcomers to australia have often assumed that indigenous peoples' cultures and societies were worthless, because their efforts to understand the white society were too superficial. Indigenous Australians have in the past been completely excluded and to a large extent remain largely excluded from 'normal' economic activities. Even when barriers to institutional exclusion are progressively removed, practical barriers related to location, lack of education, health status, lack of access to capital, and a host of other factors combine to exclude Indigenous people effectively. there are many issues that have and still are affecting the indeginous australians such as land rights, deaths in custody and the stolen generation which have been looked over by the government to some extent. however, was the government response enough to make the aboriginal and torres strait islander peoples' life easy and equivilant to non aboriginal lifestyles? the answer to this can be evaluated by over viewing the government responses through these years concerning the three main issues mentioned above and how effective they have been. Seeing what these people go through will open your eyes to the reality of racism that still exists in our world today. It is important for people to understand the extent of the problems facing the Aboriginal community so that improvements can be made. Yet to fully achieve an understanding of the issues at hand, one must learn about the Aboriginal issues of yesterday.

When you can relate to where the people are coming from, it is easier to understand why their current situation exists. as australians begin to see themselves as part of the asian and pacific regions rather than as a satelite suburb of europe, they are also seeing the first australians through new eyes. it is almost impossible to exaggerate the importance of land to aborigines, either in the traditional society or in the circumstances of today. as the anthropologist S tanner has expressed it "No english words are good enough to give a sence of the links between an aboriginal group and its homeland... ". All recent socio-economic studies show that aboriginal deprivation stems directly from the destruction of their way of life, especially loss of their lands. land justice for indigenous australians still remains the most pressing moral and political issue for all australians which highlights the current struggle of indigenous peoples to secure their land rights and to manage natural resources in a sustainable manner in order to secure the future of their families and communities. the myth of "terra null ius" of australia in 1788 being an uninhabited land, has lasted through two centuries and has only recently been negated. aboriginal ownership was not recognised until after many years of struggle, aboriginal law and land rights were recognised in australian law in the Aboriginal Land Rights (Not hern Territory) Act 1976. this aboriginal Land Rights Act is a bench mark law: it was the first attempt by the australian government to legally recognise the aboriginal system of land ownership and put into law the concept of inalienable freehold tittle. under the 1976 Act the northern and central Land Councils were set up to represent the traditional landowners, each council having a legal practitioner in its employ. limited forms of land rights legislation have also been introduced in south australia, new south wales, Queensland, Tasmania and victoria. The laws however differ markedly from State to State. The variety of legislative regimes and the differences between these acts, in the forms of tenure that they create or legitimize, created a patchwork system across Australia for the aboriginals and the torres strait islander people. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) is a Commonwealth statutory authority, which was set up in 1990 under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission Act 1989 to include Indigenous people in the processes of government affecting our lives.

It also has a native title program administered by ATSIC's Native Title and Land Rights Branch, which supports a network of native title representative bodies to assist groups making claims under the Native Title Act 1993. To give statutory recognition to Indigenous common laws rights and resolve a number of land management issues, the Commonwealth legislated the Native Title Act 1993 and amended it in 1998. The Native Title Act set up a National Native Title Tribunal to help mediate claims; provided for the establishment of a Indigenous Land Fund to assist those whose native title had already been extinguished; and set in place procedures to protect native title by requiring that native title holders be consulted in advance if governments plan to grant certain interests in their land to mining companies or other parties. the policy of self determination also included moves towards consideration of land rights legislation. as a result of this, aboriginal people were allowed to have a greater say in decisions about their future and to manage their affairs themselves. In 1967, the australian constitution was changed so that aboriginals could be included in the official census. it allowed aborigines to vote and to recieve social service benefits. due to the referendum, the aboriginals had greater say and more rights which increased their ability to fight against their misfortune and demand for action to be taken. therefore the government response regarding land rights has been highly effective in satisfying the indigenous australians as through these acts they are given ownership over certain pieces of land that they can call their own and practise their rituals on. both Indigenous and non Indigenous interests agree that the original functions of the Land Councils should now be re-focused onto achieving social and economic advancement, as the original aims of the Land Councils have largely been achieved. however, the Commonwealth Government should take a leading role in coordinating efforts to establish this standard in all States and Territories, and to encourage the establishment of claims procedures over additional land where these procedures do not yet exist. The issues surrounding Australian "Aboriginal Deaths In Custody" is of major concern to all people living within a society that chooses to consider themselves open-minded to cultural awareness, tolerance and a willingness to embrace the concepts of "reconciliation". Indigenous Australians are grossly over-represented among persons held in custody or imprisonment in all parts of Australia.

According to the National Police Custody Survey held in August 1995, Indigenous people were 31.0 times more likely than non-Indigenous people to be involved in incidents resulting in police custody. To make the meaning of these figures crystal clear, one in every 64 Indigenous adults was in prison according to the figures from the 1998 prison census, the most recently available. in response to these large figures, the government had to do something that would search for the causes of this issue and come up with resolutions that would decrease the number of aboriginal deaths in custody. a public outcry in 1987 about the number of aboriginal and toress strait islander people dying in custody resulted in the establishment of the royal commission into aboriginal deaths and custody which investigated deaths which occured between 1980 and may 1989, and the underlying social, cultural and legal issues which had a bearing on those deaths. the royal commission into aboriginal Deaths in Custody inquired into the deaths of 99 aboriginal and toress strait islander individuals which occured between 1 january 1980 and 31 may 1989 in prisons, juvenile detention centres and police custody. the commission looked at the circumstances of each death and and the experience of indigenous australians through more than 200 years of contact with non-indigenous society. the commission also looked at the social and historical factors which have, and have had, negative consequences for the lives of aboriginal and toress strait islander peoples. the commisisons recommendations were aimed at reducing the numbers of indigenous australians taken into custody, their risks of death in custody and finding ways of dealing with the underlying issues, such as health, education, employment and housing, which have led to the disproportionate custodial rates. however, the royal commission had its disadvantages and complaints as it was believed by the aborigines that it would be more one sided, run by whites according to white custom and values and with the strength totally on the white side. some believe that the report paid insufficient attensionto indeginous australian women and did not adequately recognise customary law The final report of the royal commission was greeted with enormous hope by the Indigenous community as a blueprint for change, however, to date, governments have failed to adequately implement its recommendations. although the government took a step forward to help reduce the numbers of indigenous deaths in custody, it did not completely achieve its aims and reccomendations, making it a government response that wasnt entirely effective and one that needed amendment. From the earliest days of British occupation of Australia, governments allowed the removal of Aboriginal children from their families, particularly the so called 'half-caste' children. The stolen children were raised in institutions or fostered out to white families 'for their own good'.

The removal of children intensified in the 1950's and, giving rise to the 'stolen generation'. The National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families was commissioned in 1995 by the then Labor Government, in response to lobbying by Indigenous groups communities. The report delivered with a wide-range of recommendations, was published in May 1997. Bringing them home (the Report) tells the stories of people separated due to past governments' policies and practices. It tells of the effects that separation has had on Indigenous children, families and communities.

It explains the inter-generational effects on families and recommends actions by all spheres of government and non-government bodies. The report concluded that, in the period from 1910 to 1970, between 10 and 30 per cent of Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families and communities. The Commission on Human Rights of the United Nations also set out a set of principles, known as the 'Van Boven' principles. Besides providing a right to a remedy, through appropriate legal or other channels, victims are entitled to reparation through restitution, compensation, rehabilitation or satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition. The Commonwealth Government has lagged behind the State and Territory Governments in providing a formal apology to Aboriginal people. There has been no acknowledgment that the forcible removal experiment constituted systematic racial discrimination and possibly genocide, or in any case amounted to violations of human rights.

Whilst the Commonwealth recognises the need to 'acknowledge the wrongs of the past', the response does not express or appear to accept these 'wrongs' as human rights violations. In certain aspects, the response by the Commonwealth Government is not very effective as it did not respond to the effects of forcible removals according to the reccomendations that were listed in Bringing Them Home. Even though the Commonwealth Government has made some positive responses it has failed to discharge its international legal human rights obligation in several key areas of Commonwealth responsibility. Three areas are readily identified: the failure to pay compensation; lack of an official apology and acknowledgment of human rights violations; and the failure to guarantee non-repetition. improving faults in these areas would facilitate the process of reconciliation which would lead to a better relationship between the aboriginal and non aboriginal people. in the light of the above it can be seen that Aboriginal Australians have been through years of suffering as a people.

Their land has been taken, their spirituality and culture damaged, their community degraded by aboriginal deaths in custody and their children stolen. They have faced centuries of ridicule for being different from the white people. Today many Aboriginals have difficulties fitting into white society since many 'white' people won't accept them. They also struggle with identity crisis's because they are not connected with their land the way that they should be. although the government has responded to these issues in a variety of ways such as creating acts, organisations and rights that people can get help from, the lives of these aboriginal and toress strait Islander people are still under grief of what they had lost. The more that people know about the situation, the more that can be done for the Aboriginal people. If no one knows the details of the problem, then no one can help.

Awareness is hopefully the key to making changes in Australia for the betterment of its indigenous population. R"eF " eR"e~Nc^Es Lorna Lippmann, (1994), Generations of Resistance, Longman, pg 33-48 and 100-128 Bill Jonas, (1994), The Little Red, Yellow and Black Book, Aboriginal Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, pg 24, 31 and 36 Commonwealth of Australia, (1994), Responding to Custody Levels, Australian Government Publishing Service, pg 3-5 and 9-13 web.