The colonization of lands across the globe has given rise to the world we see today. The history that is told in schools is that of the victors. It is interesting to learn what the term aboriginal means when you look at the etymology of the word;
Ab – to remove, take away from.
Original – the first in time, the earliest.
So why is it that the original peoples across the globe are called the “not originals” or aboriginals? Have you ever asked that question?
Could it be due to the elimination of any sovereign claim to the land that can otherwise be called Terra nullis or land not owned by anyone? This is the primary method the United Kingdom took ownership of the lands within their legal dominion to this day, without any of that messy indigenous land rights stuff. Australia was colonized as a land not owned by anyone beginning in 1788, even though there were an estimated 750,000 to 1,000,000 indigenous people living on the land with a huge range of languages and traditions that extend approximately 60,000 years before according to carbon dating of tools. That makes indigenous people from the Australian continent the longest surviving collection of tribes continuously living on one land mass…. In the world. Did you know that?
According to the Australian Native Titles Act 1993, there is only a valid indigenous claim to land if those claiming native title have a continuous and unbroken connection to the land, inclusive of never renting or selling the land in question.
A few counter arguments to this mean-spirited legal document (and I say that for reasons you will see in a moment):
1/ There is carbon dated proof that is scientifically irrefutable as to the original people of Australia being on the land around 60,000 years prior to colonization. That automatically presents them as a primary “owner” of the land.
2/ The United Kingdom has stated there was no sovereign nation that had a claim to the land prior to settlement with an “international presence” such as those warranting treaties, like the Maori of New Zealand and the Native Americans of the USA and Canada. That was the very basis of Terra nullis being used as a way to claim Australian soil as the property of the UK without any treaty with the indigenous people living there for the previous 60,000 years.
3/ How can a colonizing country with a long history of practicing written ‘law’ ask an indigenous culture to sign a legal document in all fairness when they have no history of written law in the same sense of the UK? Surely the very nature of there being significant language barriers would make any of these legal documents signed under duress and force of the colonizing soldiers and the Queens lawmakers.
4/ The Australian Government are quite happy to let mining companies destroy what they deem to be property of the Commonwealth, in the name of business and profit, while disallowing native title because the indigenous and original landholders need to provide irrefutable proof that they have an unbroken connection with the land…. Despite the fact that most of the indigenous people in Australia were killed during the colonization of Australia… and therefore the claimants to the land. It was a good legal tactic to ensure there are no witnesses for the crime, in this case, a genocide, followed by a eugenics attempt to whiten Australia via the removal of indigenous children from their families under the guise of social welfare (the stolen generations of indigenous Australians is a massive crime the Australian Government are yet to pay for).
Here is one excerpt from the Native Title Act 1993 demonstrating the difficulty that the indigenous Australians will have in claiming their land, and the rent from the colonizing government (that they have this far ensured will never be paid to the original land holders).
Factual basis for claimed native title
(5) The Registrar must be satisfied that the factual basis on which it is asserted that the native title rights and interests claimed exist is sufficient to support the assertion. In particular, the factual basis must support the following assertions:
(a) that the native title claim group have, and the predecessors of those persons had, an association with the area; and
(b) that there exist traditional laws acknowledged by, and traditional customs observed by, the native title claim group that gives rise to the claim to native title rights and interests; and
(c) that the native title claim group have continued to hold the native title in accordance with those traditional laws and customs.
Basically, the government has conceded after the Mabo decision on June 3rd, 2003, that the indigenous people of Australia did ‘own’ the land prior to colonisation, but they will have to prove it in retrospect, which is nigh on impossible given the fact that there are so few indigenous tribes with a legally satisfactory claim to their land according to the Native Titles Act. But if you are a Chinese mining company with the billions of dollars to spare, no worries mate… sign on the dotted line and the land is yours!!
Basically, the government has conceded after the Mabo decision on June 3rd, 2003, that the indigenous people of Australia did ‘own’ the land prior to colonisation, but they will have to prove it in retrospect, which is nigh on impossible given the fact that there are so few indigenous tribes with a legally satisfactory claim to their land according to the Native Titles Act. But if you are a Chinese mining company with the billions of dollars to spare, no worries mate… sign on the dotted line and the land is yours!!
The ironies of a government that functions as a supposedly fair representation of the people of the Commonwealth.
Science says that the ‘ab-originals’ were truthfully the originals of the land now termed Australia. Not just for a millennia or two… but sixty millennia. If that is not a claim to the native title of the entire land mass I don’t know what is. The denial of the truth is why we have the government we have in Australia and the worst indigenous life expectancy in the world.
Until the people supporting these government policies see the lies they have been told about Australia, we will not see real change such as closing the gap on indigenous health care and broad spread education in schools across the continent on the languages and traditions of the original Australians. Then we can start talking about the rent payable to the families remaining from the pre-colonized Australia; I am sure that the Queen and the Commonwealth will feel good signing that cheque.
Yours in Wellness,
Tom Eckersley
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Cultural Affair 