conquest & colonisation in australia
TRANSCRIPT
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settlement
reception
democracy
constitutionalism
Australia’s sovereignty stories:
wrapped up in a neat box
Australia’s missing
‘sovereignty story’
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Voyages of Discovery
European colonisation?
First nations
40-60,000 yrs ongoing
Three ways to acquire sovereignty
over a territory…
Conquest
• Existing law remained unless/until altered
Cession
• Existing law remained unless/until altered
Settlement
• Receptionof coloniser’slaw
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Land use: if only they looked
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-06/fish-trap-
heritage/5185828 (Western Catchment Management Authority)14
Tiwi artist’s statement: culture
is ancient and contemporary
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Image K Galloway from Museum and
Art Gallery of the Northern Territory,
2014
The evidence shows a subtle and elaborate
system, highly adapted to the country in
which the people led their lives, which
provided a stable order of society and was
remarkably free from the vagaries of
personal whim or influence.
If ever a system could be called a
‘government of laws, and not of men’, it
was shown in the evidence before me.
Milirrpum v Nabalco (1971) 17 FLR 141, 267
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Lifestyle choice?
[you are..] with the consent of the
Natives to take possession, in the
name of the King of Great Britain,
of convenient situations …
(Captain Cook’s instructions, 1776)
…[you are to] conciliate their
affection in order to live in amity
and kindness..
(Governor Phillip’s instructions)
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Frontier
Wars
19http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=35825#.VQSzw0YeY wF
Sovereignty on trial
Decision Held
McDonald v Levy (1833) Australia was an ‘uninhabited country’ and
that Aboriginal people who ‘lived without
certain habitation and without laws were
never in the situation of a conquered people.
Cooper v Stuart (1889) NSW: a ‘tract of territory practically
unoccupied, without settled inhabitants or
settled law, at the time when it was
peacefully annexed to the British dominions.’
Coe v Cth (1979) Sovereignty cannot be challenged in the
domestic courts: act of state doctrine
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Sovereign nation at international
law
Domestic courts cannot determine validity of nation’s
sovereignty
Only international courts have jurisdiction
The Act of State doctrine
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My ancestors never signed away our
ancient laws or ceded sovereignty. Our
ancient laws are not extinguishable.
They were not created by humans and
they cannot be extinguished by them,
through whatever processes they
devise. It is not that simple. The old
people know the law and its onerous
obligations. Obligations which hundreds
of Aboriginal peoples still carry today.
Irene Watson (2000) 24
Eddie Mabo: I know who owns
my land, and it’s not you…*
Edward Koiki Mabo (1936–1992) Original hand-drawn map … 1981–1992 ink & coloured felt-tip pen on paper 32.5 x 20.4cm | Manuscript Collection, MS 9518 | National Library of Australia | http://nationaltreasures.nla.gov.au/index/Treasures/item/nla.ms-ms9518-1-1x-s1*Not a quote
The acquisition of territory by a
sovereign state for the first time
is an act of state which cannot
be challenged, controlled or
interfered with by the courts of
that state.
Mason CJ & McHugh J
Mabo v Qld (No 2), [31]26
SovereigntyRadical
title Right to
grant land
CustomNative
title Land rights
But…
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1770:
40-60,000 yrs
Mabo alters relationship
between sovereignty & land
Radical title
• Belongs to crown
• Power to grant land
Full beneficial title
• Belongs to traditional owners
• Can be extinguished
Once native title extinguished…
Crown has full title
Legal pluralism??
Customary law continues within communities
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English lawALRC
Report 1986Sentencing, family law…
Native title
Equality before the law?
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Mounted Police and Blacks' depicts the killing of Aboriginal people at
Slaughterhouse Creek by British troops
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterloo_Creek_massacre#mediaviewer/File:M
ounted_police_and_blacks.jpg
Equality before the law?
Exclusion of Aboriginal, Torres Strait
Islander laws
Dispossessed of land
Culture, self-determination
disrupted
Retribution against
Indigenous people
massacresWithout
consequence for English
No enforcement of law against
English
Crimes not investigated
Indigenous complainants can’t testify
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Citizenship: franchise
1885
• Elections Act Qld
• Excluded Aboriginal people
1930
• Torres Strait Islanders excluded
• ‘half caste’ people also excluded
1962• Right to vote in Commonwealth elections
1965
• Right to vote in Qld for all Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people
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The 1967 referendum
• The people of any race, other than the aboriginal race in any State, for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws.
Power to make laws
s51(xxvi)
• Aboriginal people can be counted to determine electorates
• Census, other govt figures can now include Aboriginal people
• Re-weighted value of Aboriginal votes
Repeal s127
1. The ‘67 referendum was not about citizenship
2. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians were not part of a ‘Flora and Fauna Act’…
Davis & Williams, Everything You Need to Know about the Referendum to Recognise Indigenous Australians (2015), 35
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http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/economy/stolen-
wages
Stolen wages: equality
before the law?
A question of perspective
Exploration Pastoralism Federation
Protectionism AssimilationSelf-
determination
Questioning law’s legitimacy
No case can command unquestioning
adherence if the rule it expresses
seriously offends the values of justice
and human rights (especially equality
before the law) which are aspirations of
the contemporary Australian legal
system.
Brennan J
Mabo v Qld (No 2) [29]47
Declaration on Rights of
Indigenous Peoples
Article 8
1. Indigenous peoples and individuals
have the right not to be subjected to
forced assimilation or destruction of their
culture.
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Consider ‘lifestyle choices’…
…the underlying assumption is that State
sovereignty and territorial integrity are
privileged over the rights of Indigenous
peoples to be self-determining. That
they have a higher claim to protection.
In fact just the opposite is true…
William Jonas (2002)50
Swings & roundabouts: 50
years
1965 Freedom ride
67 referendum
Land Rights Act NT
Racial Discrimination
Act 1975
MaboRCIADIC‘Bringing
them Home’Apology
InterventionExpert panel -
recognitionReferendum? Treaty??
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