Koowarta: A Warrior for Justice: A Brief History of Queensland's Racially Discriminatory Legislation and the Aboriginal Litigants Who Fought It

Abstract

The Koowarta case was one of several that began in the 1970s when indigenous people took action against racial discrimination and denial of rights to land by the Queensland government. The granting of mining leases over Aboriginal reserves instigated further litigation, including the Peinkinna and Wik cases. To understand the decision by the Queensland cabinet to deprive Koowarta of the land transfer of the pastoral lease purchased by the Aboriginal Land Commission, and the events that followed his case, this article details the history of ‘native’ administration in that state. Late in the history of this ‘protectorate’, the mining industry (and its generous treatment by the Queensland government) led to abuses of the Aboriginal peoples of the western region of Cape York Peninsula. The Koowarta case laid the ground for the recognition of native title in pastoral leases, a matter which John Koowarta's neighbours, the Wik, Thaayorre and Alngith peoples, pursued with the same determination.