to the native title system must be considered alongside state and territory legislation regarding
land rights, and all jurisdictions’ cultural heritage legislation.
Indeed, the stories in this Report illustrate the very basic but important fact that land justice
– and within that, the native title system – is strongly connected to the general wellbeing of
our peoples. It is part of our everyday life that the ongoing denial of land justice – and the
discriminatory processes that are involved in that denial – result in a deprivation of our basic
human rights to identity, culture and self‑determination.
Native title and land rights is something that only we, as First Nations peoples in Australia,
have to pursue, but it is in fulfillment of human rights that all Australians are entitled to enjoy,
and most already do enjoy. As discussed earlier in this chapter, the content of those human
rights – were they to be enjoyed – looks different for us because our culture is different and our
traditional system of ‘land rights’ looked different under received British common law. But they
are the same rights already enjoyed by everyone else in Australia.
The first Social Justice Report by the first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
Commissioner, Mick Dodson, clearly identified the importance of social justice, including land
justice, to our everyday life.
Social Justice must always be grounded in the daily lives of Indigenous Australians.
Social Justice is what faces you when you get up in the morning. It is awakening in a
house with an adequate water supply, cooking facilities and sanitation. It is the ability to
nourish your children and send them to a school where their education not only equips
them for employment but reinforces their knowledge and appreciation of their cultural
inheritance. It is the prospect of genuine employment and good health: a life of choices
and opportunity, free from discrimination. This is not an ideal. It is the commonplace
experience of most Australians.53
Regarding native title and social justice, specifically, Commissioner Dodson went on to say:
The recognition of native title has utterly recast the landscape of this country. It has
brought Australian common law and morality into a closer relationship. It provides a unique
opportunity for developing a closer relationship between Indigenous and non‑Indigenous
Australians. Reconciliation based on justice presents the prospect of a unity which could
uplift the entire community.54
This is the basis of approaching native title in this Report – 30 years later – through the stories
of individual women and their native title journey. The unfinished business of land justice in
Australia – specifically the failure of native title, land rights and cultural heritage protection
legislation to facilitate self‑determination and community control – is a significant component
of the failure of successive governments to see improvements in our well-being and health
outcomes. Native title may seem removed from everyday life to many Australians who do not
understand the importance of Country to our cultures and our identities, and to those who have
not experienced the system. However, it is integral to how we experience our everyday life.
By starting with how the human beings at the centre are impacted, valuable insights can be
gained into how those systems and processes must change.
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Women in Native Title: Native Title Report 2024