Aboriginal Land Rights Acts

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In Australian history, the Aboriginal Land Rights Acts were statutes that established land rights for Australian aborigines who made traditional use of the land. These statutes included the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976, and the Native Title Act of 1993.

[edit] Pitjantjatjara Lands Act 1956

The first Native Title legislation in Australia was the South Australian Pitjantjatjara Lands Act 1956. Under the act, land was transferred to the Pitjantjatjara people, who had maintained a continuous connection with their land. However, the act provided no basis for claims by other groups.

[edit] Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976

Main article: Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976

As a result of the findings of the Woodward Aboriginal Land Rights Commission, a Royal Commission, the Fraser Government enacted the Aboriginal Land Rights Act in 1976, after its drafting by the Whitlam Labor Government in 1975.

Four land councils were established under this law. It established the basis upon which Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory could, for the first time, claim rights to land based on traditional occupation.

This Act was the first Australian law which allowed a claim of title if claimants could provide evidence of their traditional association with land.

[edit] Native Title Act 1993

Main article: Native Title Act 1993

The recognition of the legal concept of native title in Mabo in 1992 led its recognition by the legislative system a year later when the Keating government enacted the Native Title Act 1993. It attempted to clarify the legal position of landholders and the processes that must be followed for Native Title to be claimed, protected and recognised through the courts.

The concept of claiming land rights is independent of native title.

Native title is not the same as land rights Aboriginal Land Rights Acts. Land rights are new legal rights that are created and granted under Australian law to Indigenous Australians.

In a land rights claim Indigenous Australians can seek a grant of title to land from the Commonwealth, state or territory governments. That grant may recognise traditional interest in the land, and protect those interests by giving Indigenous people legal ownership of that land.