Juridics: Australia; Aboriginal land claim recognized by Aussie court, limited r+ts to city of Perth and area

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An AP reporter Rod McQuirk in an article today in Toronto's Globe & Mail, "Aborigines gain title to Perth" (Sep21,2k6) details from Canberra how "An Australian federal court judge has given a tribe of Aborigines a limited land title claim over the major city of Perth." The word "limited" is important for the longterm results of the decision.

Glen Kelly, chief executive of the South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council, which represented the Noongar people in the three-year court battle, described the ruling as a long overdue recognition of the traditional owners' identity.

Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson said the decision was “absolutely extraordinary” because it demonstrated that native title was not confined to unpopulated areas, where most previous successful claims have occurred.

Indigenous leaders appealed for calm and said they were “not after people's backyards or their farms.”

Pacific > Australia

“We're after recognition and if we get any type of benefit, it's to run businesses and train our people,” Ted Hart, also of the South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council, told The Australian newspaper.

Australia's Attorney-General Philip Ruddock warned that open spaces in major cities could be up for grabs and white people could be shut out.

“In a major capital city, where you do have very extensive areas of parkland, water foreshores, beaches ... you could well find that if a native claim were found to be a bona fide claim and lawful, ... native title owners would be able to exclude other people from access to those areas,” he told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio on Thursday.

Canada, including Ontario, have barely faced a whole host of land claims by Aboriginal communities. We all have to rely on the courts to do justice to all concerned, and not let any one set of interests obliterate those of others. For the longest number of years, the Aboriginal interests have been buried and the line of descent and inheritance ostensibly obliterated. But this effort toward erasure of aboriginal existence is proving increasingly not to have been totally effective, and therefore no longer prevails automatically.

-- Politicarp

Further Research:

Aboriginal land claims under fire (Australia, AP, 1997)
Court blow to Aborigine land claim (Australia, BBC, 2002

Tags: Aborignals win land claim Perth, Australia

• juridics
• aboriginallandclaims
• aboriginesAustralia
• aboriginesCanada
• nativepeoples
• PerthAustralia