I was served by a lovely aboriginal girl on the check out at a major shopping centre yesterday. Good stuff. Maybe it is starting to happen for the next generations. The fact that they have 26.000uni students is a sign that things are turning around for the aboriginal people. I guess it will take time, but it's a wonderful achievement and can only lead to better things for all aborigines in the future. Maybe it was always just a matter of time and adjustment. It isn't and hasn't been easy for them.

I respect their achievment.

Thanks Cherful, you're right: it certainly hasn't been easy for Indigenous people, in terms of policy as well as demography. But so many are trying, they are seizing opportunities where they can, because what's the alternative ? To sit back and wait to be liberated (there's that passive voice again) by the revolutionary white working class ? Yeah, that's likely to happen any time soon.

No, people are seizing back their sense of agency, from both Left and right, who at various times have counselled them to give up the struggle - for all sorts of reasons - and wait. Well, they're not going to. And they haven't sat back and waited for a hell of a long time now - they are clawing back their rights and god help whoever gets in the way, including the Indigenous elite who also would rather they waited.

Way back in the sixties, I remember, on one of the first occasions I saw my future wife, a five foot ball of energy, she was cursing a white kid down the street 'top-note' about fifty metres away and he was slinking away with his tail between his legs, over some stupid thing or other. There was nothing submissive about her, she would spit in your eye rather than avoid it, none of the touching the forelock, avoiding eye contact, speaking softly bullsh1t that the Pilgers and so much of the ex-Left of the world get off on. Indigenous people confront adversity all the time, but so many don't cave in to it - they try to rise above it with every effort they can muster.

And those are the sorts of people who will prevail, over their obvious enemies and their 'friends' (if you can tell the difference) who advise them to sit and wait, life has been so hard for them that they shouldn't have to do anything for themselves. Bugger that, many would say - stand up and fight for your sense of agency before it is taken away from you by your oh-so-kind 'friends'.

From little things, big things grow

Joe

For decades, many of us believed that all Aboriginal rights in land had been denied, taken away, ignored. 'Terra nullius' had been the legal basis of this theft.

It seems that nobody did any research into this allegation, or to try to find out the actual legal situation, Aboriginal people were persuaded that they had nothing (at least until Mabo), which in turn persuaded them that getting anything back would be better than nothing.

But, as any half-decent lawyer would have known, especially those specialising in land law, that every pastoral lease contained that essential clause:

"And reserving to aboriginal inhabitants of the said State
and their descendants during the continuance of this lease
full and free right of egress and regress into upon and over
the said lands and every part thereof and in and to the
springs and surface waters therein and to make and erect
and to take and use for food, birds and animals ferae naturae
in such manner as they would have been entitled to if this
lease had not been made."

So that's all pastoral land AND Crown Land: Aboriginal people had usufructurary rights, the rights to use the land in all traditional ways, except the right to exclude others. On pastoral land and on Crown Land. They didn't have the right to sell their land, or to set a price on it, but neither did they ever have this right under traditional law.

So what were the lawyers employed by Aboriginal groups doing ? How did they earn their money ?

They and their professors advised Aboriginal groups to negotiate for scraps, anything, anything more than nothing. But ..... they already had far more than nothing. Yes ? No ?

Whatever happened to 'due diligence' ?

So dead silence from law professors, from legal advisers. Nobody comments, nobody sues lawyers for negligence.

Very interesting ..........

Hey Jo ,
Can you give us a web reference for one of these leases that give all these Rights to Indigenous People that you mention ?
Would really love to see it .

Hi Jim,

I didn't get any of the references of the web, but from primary documents, Pastoral Board records, Acts of Parliament, etc. As far as I know, none of them have been scanned or transcribed for the web. But if you can check out your State Library or Parliamentary Library, and look up old copies of Pastoral Acts, or Land Acts, or however the legislation of pastoral leases was dealt with, check out the Schedules or Appendices to those Acts, or Ordinances issued in accordance with those Acts, the clause will probably be there.

But if not, try to find the Annual Reports of the AFA (Aborigines' Friends' Association), for 1936, pp. 35-37. [This will take a few postings]. I'll quote the relevant passage:

[page 35] [Paragraph Title]
"The Rights of the Aborigines Safeguarded in the Pastoral Leases"

"AS ENQUIRIES are being made about the retention of the rights of the aborigines to hunt on pastoral leases, the Association has looked carefully into this matter, and we find that in all South Australian pastoral leases the following clause has been inserted:

"And reserving to aboriginal inhabitants of the said State and their descendants during the continuance of this lease full and free right of egress and regress into upon and over the said lands and every part thereof and in and to the springs and surface waters therein and to make and erect and to take and use for food, birds and animals ferae naturae in such manner as they would have been entitled to if this lease had not been made."

"As in Mr Bleakley's [1928] report on the aborigines, it is stated that all leases in North Australia contain the above reservation, but that in some Central Australian leases it had been omitted. We made enquiries of the Federal Government about the matter, and received the following reply:

[TBC]

[Contd.]

"[Paragraph Title] Reservation Omitted.

" I desire to refer to your letter of August 28th, 1936, addressed to ther Minister, relative to a paragraph in Mr. [page 36] Bleakley's report on aboriginals, reading as follows: "All leases in North Australia contain the reservation, but in a number of those recently issued in Central Australia the condition has been omitted." and your request for information regarding the statements made in the paragraph quoted. With regard to your enquiry, I would point out that the reservation in favour of the aboriginal inhabitants of the Northern Territory was first included in the Crown Lands Ordinance No. 15 of 1924, and has been carried forward in all subsequent Ordinances, and all pastoral leases issued under those Ordinances are subject to the reservation.

"Prior to the passing of the Crown Lands Ordinance No. 15 of 1924, pastoral leases in the Territory were issued under the Crown Lands Ordinance 1912-1913, and this Ordinance did not provide for any specific reservation in favour of the aboriginals. Further, when the Northern Territory was transferred to the Commonwealth [from South Australia on 1/1/1911], existing estates were preserved by the Northern Territory Acceptance Act, and the pastoral leases granted by South Australia and carried forward, also did not contain any such reservation. Therefore, there are at present [i.e. in 1936] a number of pastoral leases granted under South Australian Acts and the Crown Lands Ordinance 1912-1913, still in force, which do not contain the reservation above referred to. These leases are situated throughout the Northern Territory, and are not confined solely to the region previously called Central Australia. The Northern Territory was divided into two separate territories, called respecitvely, North Australia and Central Australia, at the twentieth parallel of South Latitude, as from March 1st, 1927, by virtue of a proclamation issued under the Northern Australia Act 1926. Pastoral leases were issued under the Crown Lands Ordinances of North Australia and Central Australia respectively, but all such leases contained the reservation.

[TBC]