Oxford LibGuides: Australia: legal resources: Indigenous people in Australia

First Nation Australians and Torres Strait Islanders

Native Title Act 1993 (Australia)
Amended version from official government website. Links through to previous/historic versions.
MABO AND OTHERS v. QUEENSLAND (No. 2) [1992] HCA 23; (1992) 175 CLR 1 (Mabo Case)
Transcript made available via AustLII
Love v Cth of Australia [2020] HCA 3
Transcript of judgment made available on official court website
Love v Cth of Australia: Court Filings
AustLII's Australian Indigenous Law Library
Open Access website. Portal to Australian Court Judgments:
National Native Title Tribunal of Australia Decisions 1994-
High Court of Australia Decisions Concerning Indigenous Issues
Federal Court of Australia Decisions Concerning Indigenous Issues
Other Australian Indigenous Law Cases

Legislation
Commonwealth Legislation Concerning Indigenous Issues
Australian Captial Territory Legislation Concerning Indigenous Issues
New South Wales Legislation Concerning Indigenous Issues
Northern Territory Legislation Concerning Indigenous Issues
Queensland Legislation Concerning Indigenous Issues
South Australian Legislation Concerning Indigenous Issues
Tasmanian Legislation Concerning Indigenous Issues
Victorian Legislation Concerning Indigenous Issues
Western Australian Legislation Concerning Indigenous Issues

Fortescue vs Yindjibarndi: land rights and welfarism in third spaces
Remote access requires Oxford SSO. Article by Guevara, Moerman, and Pupovac (2020) 44 Accounting Forum 160
Indigenous practices of accounting on the ground: a Bourdieusian perspective
Remote access requires Oxford SSO. Article by Fukofuka, Scobie and Finau (2023) 36 Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal pp. 96-119.
Australian Indigenous Law Reporter 1-20 (1996-2006) Australian Indigenous Law Review (2006-2017)
Holders of an Oxford SSO can access this journal via HeinOnline under its two successive titles.
Decolonising Indigenous water ‘rights’ in Australia: flow, difference, and the limits of law
Remote access requires Oxford SSO. Article by Peter Burdon, Georgina Drew, Matthew Stubbs, Adam Webster & Marcus Barber in (2015) 5 Settler Colonial Studies 334

Oxford International Encyclopedia of Legal History
Alternative name: OIELH

The Oxford International Encyclopedia of Legal History is the online version of the Oxford International Encyclopedia of Legal History (edited by S.N. Katz et al) published by OUP in 2009.
Informit Indigenous Collection
The Informit Indigenous Collection covers a range of subjects within an indigenous context. The primary focus is material from and about the Asia Pacific region. The full text Collection contains journals, books, conference proceedings and reports. Subjects include: anthropology, Cultural studies, History, Human geography, Law and land rights, (Post) colonial studies, Race studies, and Visual and performing arts.

Please ask a member of staff for directions as books are likely to be in at least 3 different sections of the LawBod - and potentially on all four floors of the library!

Subject search terms for SOLO
Aboriginal Australians -- Legal status, laws, etc
Torres Strait Islanders -- Legal status, laws, etc

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Relations by Larissa Behrendt; Chris Cunneen; Terri Libesman
Call Number: KM208.431.A8.BEH 2019
ISBN: 9780190310035
Publication Date: 2nd edn 2019
(Previous edition had title Indigenous legal relations in Australia (2009))
Aboriginal Peoples, Colonialism and International Law by Irene Watson
Call Number: Holders of an Oxford SSO can read this online via title link.
ISBN: 9780415721752
Publication Date: 2014-10-29
An examination of the Australian experience
Indigenous Legal Judgments by Nicole Watson (Editor); Heather Douglas (Editor)
Call Number: Open access title available to all online via title link
ISBN: 9780367467456
Publication Date: 2021
Open Access. This book is a collection of key legal decisions affecting Indigenous Australians, which have been re-imagined so as to be inclusive of Indigenous people's stories, historical experience, perspectives and worldviews.

Mabo v Queensland (No 2) ("Mabo case") [1992] HCA 23; (1992) 175 CLR 1
Open access transcript from AustLii
The Mabo Case
Open access. General introduction and overview of case on official AIATSIS (The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies) website
Native Title Act 1993 (Australia)
Amended version from official government website. Links through to previous/historic versions.
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providing for the recognition and protection of native title;
establishing a mechanism for determining claims to native title; and
establishing ways in which future dealings affecting native title (future acts) may proceed.
The Act establishes the Tribunal as an independent body with a wide range of functions. The Act is, itself, a 'special measure' for the advancement and protection of Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders (Indigenous Australian peoples). The Act is intended to advance the process of reconciliation among all Australians.
Connection to Country: Review of the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth)
Official website ALRC Report 126)
National Native Title Tribunal (Aus)
Official website
Fortescue vs Yindjibarndi: land rights and welfarism in third spaces
Remote access requires Oxford SSO. Article by Guevara, Moerman, and Pupovac (2020) 44 Accounting Forum 160

The Land Is Our History : indigeneity, law, and the settler state by Miranda C. L. Johnson
Call Number: Holders of an Oxford SSO can read this online via title link.
ISBN: 0190600063
Publication Date: 2016
Print copy is at KM208.431.A8.JOH 2016
Compromised Jurisprudence: native title cases since Mabo by Lisa Strelein
Call Number: Holders of an Oxford SSO can read this online via title link.
ISBN: 9780855756635
Publication Date: 2010

In 2011, DNA in a hundred year old lock of hair established that Aboriginal Australians had left Africa some 64 to 75,000 years ago, (This was before the emigrations which established humans in other parts of Asia or Europe.) Morten Rasmussen et al 'An Aboriginal Australian Genome Reveals Separate Human Dispersals into Asia' (2011) 334 Science 94

Sorted alphabetically by title, this list does not claim to be exhaustive:

Aboriginal History Journal
Open Access an annual journal published by ANU Press. "interdisciplinary historical studies of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ interactions with non-Indigenous peoples. It promotes publication of Indigenous oral traditions, biographies, languages, archival and bibliographic guides, previously unpublished manuscript accounts, critiques of current events, and research and reviews in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, sociology, linguistics, demography, law, geography and cultural, political and economic history"
ATSIC - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission
Official website archived in 2006
Australia: Indigenous People of
IWGIA overview
Australian Human Rights Commission: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
Official government website.
Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (AIATSIS) Map of Indigenous Australia
Zoomable map which "attempts to represent the language, social or nation groups of Aboriginal Australia. It shows only the general locations of larger groupings of people which may include clans, dialects or individual languages in a group ... It is not suitable for native title or other land claims." David R Horton (creator), © AIATSIS, 1996. No reproduction without permission.
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"It used published resources from the eighteenth century-1994 and is not intended to be exact, nor the boundaries fixed. It is not suitable for native title or other land claims."
Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research issues and discussion papers
Open Access. "The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) is an Indigenous-led, national institute that celebrates, educates and inspires people from all walks of life to connect with the knowledge, heritage and cultures of Australia’s First Peoples."
Bringing them home: The 'Stolen Children' report (1997)
Open Access This 700-page report of AHRC was tabled in Australia's Federal Parliament on 26 May 1997.
Contested Governance: Culture, Power and Institutions in Indigenous Australia (2008)
Open access ANU Press publication by
Janet Hunt, Will Sanders, Stephanie Garling
Council of Australian Governments (COAG)
Official government website. See link at the bottom of the home page to the Closing the Gap project.
First Nations Heritage (Australia)
Official Australian government website
Indigenous Cultural Heritage Laws (Australia)
Official government website
Land Councils (Australia)
Government website. Links through to individual websites of four main land councils.
National Indigenous Reform Agreement (2020) (Australia)
Official website
Project 94 - Aboriginal Customary Laws (Australia)
Recognition of Aboriginal Customary Laws (ALRC Report 31)
Report on Sentencing Aboriginal Offenders (NSW, Australia)
Official website of Law Reform Commission of NSW Report No. 96 (2000)
Selden Society Lecture 2016 – Hon Margaret White AO on Mabo v State of Queensland (No 2)
Open access
Stolen Generation Testimonies (Australia)
Free resource. Interesting and insightful website with stories of stolen generation Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders.
Torres Strait Regional Authority (TSRA)
Official website "Aims to strengthen the economic, social and cultural development of the Torres Strait." Includes press releases, general information on the TRSA and Torres Strait.
Trove: First Australians
Trove is maintained by the National Library of Australia. Search for digital copies of newspapers, Government Gazettes, maps, magazines and newsletters. Or books, pictures, photographs, archived websites, music and interviews. Even information about famous Australians, including copies of letters, diaries and personal archives.

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