Most of the Native Title claims should be deeemed invalid as they are based on Eddie Mabo's claim. Eddie was a Torres Strait islander and came from a completely different tradition to mainland aboriginals so that the precedent which was set by his case should not be applied elsewhere.

VK3AUU
I think I would rather leave it to the High Court to determine the extent of the application of the principles of the Mabo decision rather than your uninformed opinion.

My family also has demonstrated that we have long lived in this land, sweated for it, paid for it and sometimes died for it. I don't think that will get us anywhere.
In Australia we are all supposed to have the same value, no discrimination, no favours. Pardon me the word is---supposed. Yet Noongars---our generation---are given title over vast areas of land. Certain sects are given rights to shops, swimming pools etc.
Where is the equality?It does not exist. It is only lip service.

The idea of a seven year time limit on settling claims has a nice biblical ring about it, but still seems an inordinate amount of time for parties to come to some agreement on what are essentially access and consultancy rights. Certainly Eddie Mabo -- indigenous Australian -- had a valid claim but never lived to hear the ultimate court determination.
With so many claims waiting to be resolved, the seven year itch has to be circumvented by parties opting to avoid the courts and getting down to business with the Native Title Tribunal.
Now that the Feds and the West Australian Government are going to appeal the Noongar win in Perth, the whole circus drags on and runs the risk of further alienating the majority population.
Surely there is enough case law now for claimants and their opponents to quite quickly establish bonafides, boundaries and base rules on unalienated land. Howard and Ruddock are playing wedge politics and worse with their antics.

I wonder if our freehold law is really as tight as the lawyers think, given titles were granted by the Crown without proper compensation to the original owners as required by British law, and setting aside adverse possession laws. It would be an interesting case to run, and really get everyone thinking about...about what?

Draft for the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 had it wrong. Same errors when looked at the Native Title Act.

These are all acts for politicians, legal practioners - Judges or lawyers, anthropologists and social workers, they have never been for people who held the land.

Required is
(1) handing over titles for the land whereever freehold titles have not been issued;

(2) resuming any required land and paying just compensation; This needs extend all existing pastoral leases for up to 10 years so they get used to it or sell out before they need renegotiate;)


(3) ex-gratia payments to those who do not qualify for any returning of land;

(4) Enforcing the purpose of Constitution s51(xxvi) both at federation and when amended in 1967, this being it is unlawful to discrimiate between Australians on grounds of race;

You won. All right? You came in and you killed them and you took their land. That's what conquering nations do. It's what Caesar did, and he's not going around saying, "I came, I conquered, I felt really bad about it." The history of the world isn't people making friends. You had better weapons, and you massacred them. End of story.

Spike in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, season 64. Spike was referring to the fate of Native Americans.

Does Spike has a point?

What many proponents of "reconciliation" seem to want is forgiveness from the conquered people.

Is that a realistic prospect?

Maybe White latte left Australians need to find some other way of feeling good about themselves and leave Aborigines to work out their own salvation. Absent interfering do-gooders and the false hopes they induce Aboriginal communities might be able to do something about improving their lot

When the going was good,nobody complaint,and that period lasted a long time say two hundred+years,beautiful mansions,beautiful beachfront holiday homes and much more,compare this with some of the conditions in other parts of Australia,go take a look around,and nobody said,now that is not just fairdinkum that these people should live like this,in third world conditions,in a first world country,that really belongs to who say no more

Mickjo wrote:

"My family also has demonstrated that we have long lived in this land, sweated for it, paid for it and sometimes died for it. I don't think that will get us anywhere. "

Can you provide me with anthropolgical and historically researched proof of how this was demonstrated please? Heresay is no enough in the courts. This means naming your family members, your religion, your customs and traditions and connections to land going back at least 50 generations. I can't wait to read this epic piece of research you purport to be able to demonstrate.

BUT If you can't provide this evidence, I suggest you just stick to posting on topics that your educational level allows to to comment on with some credibility, for example= when Pauline Hanson posts an article...or someone like her...or just listen to shock jocks,,whatever.

Cheers maaate.

rainier, for thirty years we Australians have been brain washed with the idea that we are all equal,there are no superior people, my favourite-it's a level playing field.
That has been accepted as the way we go . Until suddenly Native Title comes up and suddenly we have Land Titles being held by those who have-or claim -native blood which discriminates against the rest of Australians.
My educational past has nothing to do with it. I had to leave school at fourteen , my family didn't have free education or any other freebies because we had to pay for anything we got.
I wonder how much the lawyers will get , how much "compensation" will be paid and guess who will pay for it. The poor old tax payer of course .
So where did the level playing field get to? it was never there in the first place.

Mickijo, are you saying the 30 years brainwashing brainwashing worked on you?
With Native Title we are attempting to make the "theft" a bit more legal and to do this there has to be a re - balancing of the scales.We whites still don't lose.
Aboriginal People had all the assets -we took them away illegally.
Our consciences and the desire to rectify wrongs have arrived, along with our wealth and education.
Why would you not take the opportunity to atleast attempt to right a great wrong ?
I have noticed Asian leaders always refer to our treatment of our First Nation Peoples when we criticise their Human Rights record .
We should put our house in order now.

I would like to make a comment , would wonder if we are one nation or black and white ,
recently put in submission to Fed . parl . to introduce employment to aboriginal communities by establishing coconut plantations thus they could get income by sale of oil as fuel and work for their young . .

reply was only if the communities want it .

so there will be big bits of unproductive land laying idle - till the increase in Indonensian population in 25 years when they will come and take it for food production , starvation will have no boundaries .

gordon

Rainier wrote
"Can you provide me with anthropolgical and historically researched proof of how this was demonstrated please? Heresay is no enough in the courts. This means naming your family members, your religion, your customs and traditions and connections to land going back at least 50 generations. I can't wait to read this epic piece of research you purport to be able to demonstrate."

I suggest you run that past the Maoris and see how far you get. How long have they been in New Zealand? According to their criteria, in another 500 years, we will all be able to classify ourselves as indigenous.

If some aboriginal communities can get on with their lives, why can't the rest of them make an effort. It isn't because we haven't spent enough money on them. We keep hearing lame excuses.

VK3AUU, considering we took their land, killed their men, raped their women and children and ripped their culture from them, a little more sensitivity wouldn't go astray!!

Some indigenous communties function well, and some don't as you have pointed out. What you fail to acknowledge is that some 'white' communties also function well and some don't. To comment on an issue that is not purely demonstrated by the Indigenous community and imply that it is a singular issue associated with that racial creed, is an example of your ill-education of Aboriginal issues and your ignorance to the historical implications from the imposition of the 'british' culture on a well developed population that survived for 80,000 years without our help!!

We put money into the Aboriginal community and as you have said 'we have put enough in', money does not solve any issues rising from a loss of identity, culture and way of life. The government set up little 'missions' for Aboriginal communities, isolated from cities and towns and gives each member their share of the unemployment benefits. What they conveniently manage to forget is the infrastructure needed to encourage these individuals to work for their money and the provisions to establish a community in which the money is crculated throughout and can function properly without the assistance of non - indigenous individuals.

The 'British' and 'Aboriginal' way of life have stemmed from vastly different cultures, and to expect the Aboriginal community to have adapted to an imposed culture in such a small amount of time is the basis of the racial division amongst many Australians.
The Aboriginal culture, up until the colonisation of the british, had formed over 80,000 years. Likewise, the rise of the British empire only 400 years ago is the basis of the culture we now see as the 'dominant' one in Australia.

The answer to fixing the problem is not the racial division between the two cultures, but a holistic integration and appreciateion of the elements of each which can advance the 'Australian' culture in the 21st century.

My hope is ,given a few more stumbling years, that there will be no "us" and "them". But dividing this land into parts is not going to bring us into being one people.
All it is going to do is rile those who have worked and paid for their land, probably frustrate the Aborigine who will be limited in what he/she can do and make the lawyers really really wealthy .
This stupidity will go on for years because as soon as one tribe gets an amount of land title, another tribe will put in their claim and so on and on until there is no more land to claim then will come the counter claims and arguments that will see a great deal of unpleasantness and the only ones who will profit are the lawyers and the tax paying public will be footing the bills for ever. Amen