- Aboriginal belief systems view land as sacred and linked to their ancestral spirits and identity. The land is seen as the dwelling place of elders and Aboriginal people feel a responsibility to care for it. - Several key events advanced Aboriginal land rights and recognition, including the 1938 Day of Mourning, the 1946 Pilbara Strike, the Wave Hill Walk-off in 1966, and the Mabo decision in 1992 which overturned the doctrine of terra nullius. - The Native Title Act of 1993 was passed to recognize native title under the common law in the wake of Mabo, though successfully claiming native title remains difficult for Aboriginal groups.

3. 1938 Day of Mourning * A 'day of mourning' observed by many Aboriginal people while the official celebrations of the landing of the first fleet of ships of British settlers under the command of Governor Phillip were taking place on Australia Day, Wednesday 26th January 1938 * The idea of a day of mourning began with William Cooper, founder of the Australian Aborigines League (AAL), and arose from his disappointment at the lack of progress in his representations to Commonwealth government for reforms in Aboriginal administration. He persuaded the leaders of the Aborigines Progressive Association (APA), John Patten and William Ferguson, to organise a protest. Patten wrote the manifesto Aborigines Claim Citizenship Rights! and the APA announced that, for Aborigines, Australia Day would be a day of mourning.

4. 1946 Pilbara Strike On May Day 1946 more than 800 Aboriginal people went on strike. They walked off pastoral stations, chiefly in the Pilbara but also in the Kimberley and Gascoyne, in protest over the lack of wages. They were demanding more than just flour, sugar and tea for their work - they wanted pay and respect. The strike lasted for years and despite its huge social significance it has remained a little known chapter in the state's history. The more famous Wave Hill strike occurred 20 years later in the Northern Territory.

8. The Wave Hill Strike resulted in the Prime Minister Gough Whitlam symbolically pouring a handful of sand through Gurindji elder Vincent Lingiari's hands at the hand back of the Gurindji's traditional lands in 1975.

18. It was the first time that the High Court had considered the position of Indigenous people in Australian property law and their judgement was not restricted to the Murray Islands. ... there may be other areas of Australia where an Aboriginal people, maintaining their identity and their customs, are entitled to enjoy their native title. Justice Brennan Reviewing the history of non-Aboriginal Australia, Aborigines were dispossessed of their land parcel by parcel, to make way for expanding colonial settlement. Their dispossession underwrote the development of the nation. Justice Brennan

24. The Wik decision followed action by the Wik people of Cape York in Queensland who claimed native title could coexist with current pastoral leases and by the Thayorre people who claimed native title on neighbouring Crown land which was briefly covered by pastoral leases early this century. The court held that native title rights could exist side-by-side with the rights of pastoralists on cattle and sheep stations. This is called coexistence. But it said that when pastoralists and Aboriginal rights were in conflict, the pastoralists' rights would prevail, giving pastoralists certainty to continue with grazing and related activities. Pastoralists did not lose any rights as a result of this case. Graziers could continue to run their cattle or sheep and undertake all the activities related to doing this such as building fences, dams and other structures. The court explained that pastoralists had an exclusive right to pasture, but not exclusive rights to possession of the land.

25. Despite this, the Wik decision led to an hysterical attack from pastoralists and conservative leaders, who demanded that native title be extinguished, or wiped out, on pastoral leases. The Howard Government used the decision as an excuse to severely attack native title rights with its Native Title Amendment Bill, based on the so-called Ten Point Plan for native title. The Wik decision was significant not only because it recognised native title rights on pastoral leases, but also because these leases cover a vast area - some 42% of the Australian land mass. The coexistence of native title provides the means whereby thousands of Aboriginal people, previously the backbone of the grazing industry, who were locked off cattle and sheep stations in the late 1960s and early 1970s, may gain some rights to their traditional lands.

26. Hand back of Bauhinia Downs Station in 1999

28. http://indigenousaustralia.frogandtoad.com.au/land3.html