Sir Grappler Truth Teller OAM wrote on Oct 9
th, 2022 at 1:03am:
MeisterEckhart wrote on Oct 8
th, 2022 at 11:03pm:
Sir Grappler Truth Teller OAM wrote on Oct 8
th, 2022 at 10:55pm:
"The onus is on the claimant to prove ownership." Still requires PROOF of ownership. Semantics... of no value.
Same thing.... 'claimant' can be someone who says "I own that but I've got no deeds" or another who ways "I own it and I've got deeds" ...
Who ya gonna believe?
You can argue it any way you want - the Aborigines could say they own it but not enforce it... so who is this 'claimant' you speak of?
The guy with the Pommy deeds or the Aboriginal claiming ancestral?
Terra nullius meant that settlers did not have to prove ownership over any aboriginal possession.
The settlers purchased land and leases from the crown. Aboriginals were not consulted.
Cooo-rrect! And???
A modern democracy must not only be founded on the principle of the rule of law, but the rule of just law.
The foundational principle of terra nullius in Australia was recognised as unjust and a legal fiction 30 years ago when it was ended by the High Court.
The admission of this injustice has led to the logical conclusion (in our democracy committed to the rule of just law) that the consequences of terra nullius - via its application to aboriginal legal status, land acquisition and treatment -
require restitution, reparations and redress.The 1967 Referendum and the Native Title Act have advanced those requirements regarding aboriginal legal status and unjust land acquisition.
Australians are now tasked with redressing the persisting sociocultural consequences of unjust dispossession.
This task is significantly more nebulous than the concrete recognition of aboriginals and their right to own their lands and is, no doubt, the reason it's the last train to leave terra nullius.
The question put to us is not whether it should be done, but how should it be done such that it satisfies standards of redress (establishing a concrete solution into the future) for ongoing sociocultural damage done.
It's fine to wax lyrical about redressing the dispossession of lands in the past but nothing seems to resolve many of the other issues confronting Aboriginal Australians..... particularly those in remote areas.