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Yirrkala bark petition
In 1963 the Menzies Government authorised the Nabalco mining company to mine bauxite on Yolngu traditional land. In response, 17 Aboriginal leaders fro the Yolngu people signed a petition, framed in painted bark and sent it to the House of Representatives. The petition was written in English and the Yolngu language and was sent to have their lands right formally recognised. -
Wave Hill Walk-Off
Vincent Lingiari led 200 Gurindji people led 200 Aboriginal Stockmen and their families off the Wave Hill Cattle Station in a 10 year strike for better working and paying conditions and the return of 1,295 km² of traditional Gurindji land. The strikers formed a new settlement at Wattle Creek for a number of years. -
Gove Lands Rights Ruling
Justice Blackburn ruled in the Supreme Court of Northern Territory that while the Aboriginal People had longstanding association with the land, the british law had replaced them by 1788. Blackburn also used Terra Nullius to just his ruling stating the “doctrine of communal native title does not form and never has formed, part of the law of any part of Australia”. On Australia Day 1972 Prime Minister William McMahon proclaimed that ‘land rights would threaten the tenure of every Australian. -
The Aboriginal Tent Embassy
In protest of the rejection of the land rights of the Yolngu people by the Supreme Court, Aboriginal Activists erected a beach umbrella outside the Old Parliament house. Eventually, tents were erected by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to assert their rights, grievances and occupation of their traditional lands. It garnered national and international press of the struggles for civil rights. -
Gough Whitlam 'returns' portion of the land to Gurindji people
Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, famously handed back 3300 square kilometres of land to the Gurindji people’s traditional lands, declaring, ‘I want to acknowledge that we Australians have still much to do to redress the injustice and oppression that has for so long been the lot of Black Australians. Whitlam poured sand to Vincent Lingiari as a symbolic gesture and it remains one of Australia's most iconic photographs. -
1976 Aboriginal Land Rights Act
In 1972, the Whitlam Government led a Royal Commission (the Woodward Commission) into the Aboriginal Land Rights which led to the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act being passed by the Fraser Government in 1976. It allowed Aboriginal People to claim a title if they show continued occupation of land. Now 50% of Northern Territory Land and 85% of coastlines are owned communally by Aboriginal peoples. -
The Mabo Case
Eddie Mabo and four other men from the Murray Islands began action in High Court. They argued that they have a claim to the land as the Merium People have been living on the land for thousands of years on a subsistence economy of cultivation and fishing. They also claimed that their land rights were never validly extinguished by British occupation. -
The Mabo Decision
The High Court findings by all but one judge found that there was a concept of Native Title under common law if there were a traditional connection to the land. They had also overturned Terra Nullius stating that the Aboriginal People had enjoyed thousands of years of consistent occupation and had pre-existing laws that was taken away from them, with forced dispossession as Australia grew into a nation. -
Native Title Act 1993
The Keating Labor Government passed the Native Title Act which nallows the Federal Court to mediate claims made by Indigenous People over their land. However, if the rights of pastoralists, mining companies, federal government, or private owners come into conflict with Native Title rights, it overrides the Native Title. A native title is "the recognition by Australian law that Aboriginal people have rights and interests to their land that come from their traditional laws and customs". -
The Wik Judgement
The Wiks People, from Cape York Queensland claimed that the Native Title shoudn't be extinguished because of pastoral leases. n Wik Peoples vs Queensland, the High Court ruled that a pastoral lease did not necessarily extinguish native title which meant leases could co-exist with native titles which cover 40% of Native titles. However, if the Indigenous rights conflicted with pastoralists’ activities, these pastoralists’ rights would prevail.
