Earthing Theology

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-289
Author(s):  
John D’Arcy May
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
Aboriginal Australians ◽  
Native Title ◽  
Terra Nullius ◽  
Christian Churches ◽  
Land Disputes ◽  
Religious Meaning ◽  
Indigenous Spirituality

Abstract The encounter of Aboriginal Australians with European settlers led to appalling injustices, in which Christian churches were in part complicit. At the root of these injustices was the failure to comprehend the Aborigines’ relationship to the land. In their mythic vision, known as The Dreaming, land is suffused with religious meaning and therefore sacred. It took two hundred years for this to be acknowledged in British-Australian law (Mabo judgement, 1992). This abrogated the doctrine of terra nullius (the land belongs to no-one) and recognized native title to land, based on continuous occupation and ritual use. But land disputes continue, and at a deeper level, there is little appreciation of the Indigenous spirituality of the land and the significance it could have for reconciliation with First Nations and the ecological crisis. Aboriginal theologies can help Christians to appreciate the riches of this spirituality and work towards justice.

First Nations Cultural Loss: Whiteness and the Timber Creek Judgment

Legalities ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-90
Author(s):  
Greta Bird ◽  
Jo Bird
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
High Court ◽  
Native Title ◽  
Terra Nullius ◽  
First Time ◽  
Meaningful Sense

The Ngaliwurru and Nungali Peoples of the Country known in white law as Timber Creek commenced three proceedings under the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) (NTA) in 1999 and 2000. The final judgment in the High Court was hailed as progressive. It was the first time that the Court had awarded damages inter alia for cultural loss under the NTA. The article contends that the compensation awarded was inadequate, being based on white, neo-liberal notions of property that do not acknowledge Aboriginal sovereignty, the depth of connection to country and loss suffered. The case also denied that a fiduciary obligation existed on behalf of the Crown, a possibility that was raised in Mabo and other cases but allowed to atrophy. Given this, it is argued that the judgment is a continuation of the colonial project based on the ‘ terra nullius’ doctrine and can be critiqued from the perspective of the white cultural privilege embedded throughout. The judgment does not disturb the skeleton of white Australia's claims to sovereignty: the taking of the land without consent, the failure to recognise First Nations sovereignty, the neglect to enter into treaties or to provide compensation in any meaningful sense.

scholarly journals The condition of recognition: Gothic intimations in Andrew McGahan's The White Earth

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-94
Author(s):  
Stephanie Green
Keyword(s):  
Common Law ◽  
Place Identity ◽  
Literary Fiction ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Native Title ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Terra Nullius ◽  
Rational Explanation ◽  
Historical Moment ◽  
White Earth

AbstractThis article discusses the evocation of the Gothic as a narrative interrogation of the intersections between place, identity and power in Andrew McGahan's The White Earth (2004). The novel deploys common techniques of Gothic literary fiction to create a sense of disassociation from the grip of a European colonial sensibility. It achieves this in various ways, including by representing its central architectural figure of colonial dominance, Kuran House, as an emblem of aristocratic pastoral decline, then by invoking intimations of an ancient supernatural presence which intercedes in the linear descent of colonial possession and, ultimately, by providing a rational explanation for the novel's events. The White Earth further demonstrates the inherently adaptive qualities of Gothic narrative technique as a means of confronting the limits to white belonging in post-colonial Australia by referencing a key historical moment, the 1992 Mabo judgment, which rejected the concept of terra nullius and recognised native title under Australian common law. At once discursive and performative, the sustained way in which the work employs the tropic power of Gothic anxiety serves to reveal the uncertain terms in which its characters negotiate what it means to be Australian, more than 200 years after colonial invasion.

scholarly journals Contemporary Indigenous Australian Art and Native Title Land Claim

Arts ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 32
Author(s):  
Marie Geissler
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Visual Art ◽  
Supporting Evidence ◽  
Communication Tool ◽  
Land Claims ◽  
Indigenous Australian ◽  
Native Title ◽  
Land Title

This paper investigates a select number of examples in which largely non-literate First Nation peoples of Australia, like some First Nations peoples around the world, when faced with a judicial challenge to present evidence in court to support their land title claim, have drawn on their cultural materials as supporting evidence. Specifically, the text highlights the effective agency of indigenous visual expression as a communication tool within the Australian legal system. Further, it evaluates this history within an indigenous Australian art context, instancing where of visual art, including drawings and paintings, has been successfully used to support the main evidence in native title land claims. The focus is on three case studies, each differentiated by its distinct medium, commonly used in indigenous contemporary art—namely, ink/watercolours on paper, (Case study 1—the Mabo drawings of 1992), acrylics on canvas (Case study 2—the Ngurrara 11 canvas 1997) and ochre on bark, (Case study 3—The Saltwater Bark Collection 1997 (onwards)). The differentiation in the stylistic character of these visual presentations is evaluated within the context of being either a non-indigenous tradition (e.g., represented as European-like diagrams or sketches to detail areas and boundaries of the claim sites in question) or by an indigenous expressive context (e.g., the evidence of the claim is presented using traditionally inspired indigenous symbols relating to the claimant’s lands. These latter images are adaptations of the secret sacred symbols used in ceremonies and painting, but expressed in a form that complies with traditional protocols protecting secret, sacred knowledge). The following text details how such visual presentations in the aforementioned cases were used and accepted as legitimate legal instruments, on which Australian courts based their legal determinations of the native land title.

Why Terra Nullius? Anthropology and Property Law in Early Australia

2005 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart Banner
Keyword(s):  
Property Rights ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Property Law ◽  
British Government ◽  
Aboriginal Australians ◽  
Terra Nullius ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
The Law

The British treated Australia as terra nullius—as unowned land. Under British colonial law, aboriginal Australians had no property rights in the land, and colonization accordingly vested ownership of the entire continent in the British government. The doctrine of terra nullius remained the law in Australia throughout the colonial period, and indeed right up to 1992.

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