Indigenous Rights
The Blue Mud Bay Case: Refractions through saltwater country
Topical Issue 7 / 2009
May 2009 - The Blue Mud Bay Case: Refractions through saltwater country
Under the Aboriginal Lands Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (ALRA) Aboriginal freehold land has always extended down to the low water mark. In a historic majority decision on 30 July 2008, the High Court of Australia ruled on appeal in the Blue Mud Bay case that, in effect, the ALRA also applies to the column of water above the intertidal zone. This paper contrasts settler Australian and Yolngu ways of conceptualising and giving meaning to the bodies of salt water that settler Australians call ‘seas’ and ‘oceans’.
The significance of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Wednesday, 29 April 2009
This seminar will provide a historical overview of the the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN DRIP); explain its most contentious aspects and its legal and political significance for Indigenous Australia. The seminar is based on a paper published by Megan Davis in the Melbourne Journal of International Law on the UN DRIP.
Access to Aboriginal Land under the Northern Territory Land Rights Act
Topical Issue 3 / 2007
March 2009 -
A submission by Professor Jon Altman in response to the FaCSIA Discussion Paper 'Access to Aboriginal Land under the Northern Territory Land Rights Act - Time for Change?'
Fresh water in the Maningrida region: Ameliorating intercultural contestation over values and property rights
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
This seminar will report on recent research about fresh water governance arrangements in the Maningrida region covering some 10,000 square kilometres in tropical Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. The seminar describes the region's water resources and then focuses on three linked broad perspectives on water: a historical analysis of the political economy of water; a sectoral analysis of water in the regional 'hybrid' economy; and a spatial analysis of water governance in Maningrida and the hinterland.
On Noel Pearson
Wednesday, 5 November 2008
There can be no doubt that Noel Pearson is not only a national leader in policy development, he is also a controversial figure who manages to split the interested public, academia, journalists and politicians into candid supporters or staunch critics. To research such a polarising personality's work and personal background is particularly challenging.
Are racial and ethnic minorities disadvantaged in Australia? Evidence from two randomised field experiments
Wednesday, 8 October 2008
We conduct a large-scale audit discrimination study in Australia, sending 5000 fake resumes to employers in response to online job advertisements. To denote ethnicity, we randomly changed names on the resumes, using them to denote Anglo-Saxon, Italian, Chinese, Middle Eastern, and Indigenous ethnicity. In all cases, we applied for entry-level jobs, and submitted a CV that showed that the candidate had attended high school in Australia.
The 'National Emergency' and Land Rights Reform: Separating fact from fiction
Topical Issue 12 / 2007
August 2007 -
This report, commissioned by Oxfam Australia, provides compelling evidence to argue that the proposed changes to the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 have no connection with the incidence of child sexual abuse; are likely to jeopardize the effectiveness of the Government's emergency response in the Northern Territory, and are detrimental to the development of Aboriginal communities.
Amended Land Rights Law will be Bad Law
Topical Issue 8 / 2006
July 2006 -
'Amended Land Rights Law will be Bad Law', a submission to the Senate Community Affairs Committee Inquiry into Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Amendment Bill 2006.
Northern Territory land rights: purpose and effectiveness
Discussion Paper 180 / 1999
Abstract:
This discussion paper was commissioned as material for a Northern Land Council submission to the Reeves review of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (ALRA). It addresses the question, a specific term of reference for the conduct of Reeves' inquiry, of the ëeffectiveness of the legislation in achieving its purpose. Any answers to such a question can only be assessed once we are clear about what Justice Woodward saw as, and how he interpreted, his own terms of reference in formulating the Act.
Feast, famine and fraud: Considerations in the delivery of banking and financial services to remote Indigenous communities
Discussion Paper 187 / 1999
Abstract:
The ability of Indigenous people to manage and budget their income, arrange to pay third parties, purchase food, goods and services, and maintain a level of financial and economic independence and planning, are all reliant on maintaining informed access to appropriate banking and financial services.
