What were land rights movements?

Land rights movements in Australia are the long-running campaigns by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples for recognition of their traditional ownership of land and country. Major land rights campaigns have included the 1963 Yirrkala Bark Petitions, the 1966 to 1975 Gurindji walk-off and Wave Hill land return, the 1972 Aboriginal Tent Embassy, the 1992 Mabo decision, the 1993 Native Title Act, and various state-based land rights frameworks.

The 1963 Yirrkala Bark Petitions were submitted to the federal Parliament by the Yolngu people of north-east Arnhem Land in protest at the federal government's 1963 decision to excise 300 square kilometres of Yolngu country for bauxite mining without consultation. The petitions, painted on bark and written in both Yolngu Matha and English, were the first documents to be acknowledged as Indigenous documents by the federal Parliament and are now displayed at Parliament House.

The 1966 to 1975 Gurindji walk-off was the longest-running strike in Australian history. In August 1966, about 200 Gurindji stockmen and their families left Wave Hill cattle station in the Northern Territory in protest at low wages and poor treatment. The strike evolved into a land rights campaign for return of Gurindji country. Vincent Lingiari led the Gurindji case to the Australian public. After nine years of campaigning, the Whitlam Labor government symbolically returned the land on 16 August 1975, with Prime Minister Gough Whitlam pouring sand into the hands of Vincent Lingiari as a sign of the transfer. The gesture is depicted on the back of the Australian one-dollar coin.

Major land rights legislation followed. The Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (passed under Fraser after being drafted under Whitlam) created statutory land rights in the NT, allowing Aboriginal groups to claim country on which traditional ownership could be demonstrated. About 50 per cent of the NT has been transferred to Aboriginal ownership under the Act. The Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 (NSW), the Aboriginal Lands Act 1995 (Vic), the Aboriginal Land Act 1991 (Qld), the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Land Rights Act 1981 (SA), and the Aboriginal Land Rights and Native Title Amendments (WA) operate at state level. The 1992 Mabo decision and the Native Title Act 1993 added native title at common law and statutory level. About 50 per cent of Australia is now subject to determined or claimed native title interests, with more than 600 native title determinations made. The Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation, established in 1995, supports continuing Indigenous land acquisition. The ongoing land rights campaigns continue alongside the Voice, Treaty, Truth process and the state-based treaty work in Victoria and elsewhere.