Beyond the Native Title horizon: A multifaceted vision for Indigenous empowerment in contemporary Australia

Abstract

This article advocates for empowering Australia’s Indigenous custodians through innovative legal devices with respect to their traditional lands. This is because Indigenous Australians possess certain rights and duties that are unique to their being. Regrettably, these rights have crystallised into an aging Native Title system inherently characterised by Crown supremacy and Indigenous subservience. In exploring the Native Title machinery through the lens of Australia’s colonial legacy, this article illuminates the many injustices in containing a dynamic and complex culture within the unforgiving parameters of this outdated system. Thus, a great inequity exists at the very foundation of Native Title when those most adversely affected by colonial dispossession are inadequately protected. Nevertheless, contemporary legal precedents are increasingly recognised as significant developments in expanding a legal universe rooted in the proscriptive common law tradition. Achieving ‘case-by-case’ reform is ultimately overshadowed by the financial, emotional and physical burdens placed upon Indigenous litigants. Beyond the Native Title horizon lies an unchartered territory, a place where Indigenous autonomy can coexist within legal systems of land governance. In this innovative spirit, Australian lawmakers are challenged to adopt a co-governance scheme modelled on New Zealand’s Te Awa Tupua Act to empower Indigenous Australians and dismantle entrenched principles of anthropocentric environmentalism.