What was Indigenous sovereignty?

Indigenous sovereignty in Australia is the claim of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to be the first sovereign Nations of the Australian continent, with a sovereignty that has never been ceded and that continues to coexist (or compete) with the sovereignty claimed by the Australian state since 1788. The concept is central to contemporary Indigenous political thought and to the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart.

The sovereignty claim rests on several elements. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples occupied the continent for at least 65,000 years before European arrival in 1788, with sophisticated systems of law, ceremony, kinship, land management, and trade that operated across hundreds of distinct Nations. The British claim to Australia in 1770 (Cook's east-coast claim) and 1788 (Phillip's Sydney Cove claim) was made without Aboriginal consent and was based on the legal fiction of terra nullius. The Mabo decision of 1992 rejected terra nullius and recognised native title, but did not directly address the broader sovereignty question.

The Uluru Statement from the Heart of 26 May 2017 set out the sovereignty claim with particular clarity. The Statement begins: 'Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes were the first sovereign Nations of the Australian continent and its adjacent islands, and possessed it under our own laws and customs. This our ancestors did, according to the reckoning of our culture, from the Creation, according to the common law from ''time immemorial'', and according to science more than 60,000 years ago'. The Statement describes the sovereignty as 'a spiritual notion: the ancestral tie between the land, or ''mother nature'', and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who were born therefrom, remain attached thereto, and must one day return thither to be united with our ancestors'.

The continuing sovereignty claim has practical implications. Aboriginal Tent Embassy outside Old Parliament House in Canberra, established on 26 January 1972, operates as a permanent diplomatic mission asserting Indigenous sovereignty. The Aboriginal Provisional Government, established 1990 by Michael Mansell, has advocated for Aboriginal sovereignty through declarations, passports, and alternative governance structures. State-based treaty processes (particularly in Victoria where the First Peoples' Assembly operates and treaty negotiations are underway) draw on the sovereignty principle to negotiate agreements between Australian governments and Aboriginal Nations. The 2023 Voice referendum defeat (60.1 per cent No) did not resolve the sovereignty question, with Indigenous advocates continuing to pursue Voice, Treaty, and Truth through state-based and community-led processes.