Land back : Aboriginal land rights in New South Wales, today and always / edited by Heidi Norman.

Sydney : UNSW Press, 2025.

1st edition

203252

New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council.

Aboriginal Australians -- Land tenure.

Aboriginal Australians -- New South Wales.

Aboriginal Australians -- New South Wales -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- History.

Section 1: How laws operate

1. The land claim process under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act

2. Local Aboriginal land councils and the Land Negotiation Program

3. Ethical investing for Aboriginal financial security

Section 2: What remains to be done

4. Cultural heritage and protection: looking back and looking forward

5. Rivers and rights: First Nations rights in rivers since 1983

6. The struggle for water justice in NSW

7. The end of land rights: dismantling the ALRA

8. Aboriginal land rights and wrongs: retrieving land in NSW

Section 3: Making the aboriginal land rights act work

9. Collectivist approaches to Aboriginal economic development: land council enterprises

10. The planning system's reparative obligations under ALRA

11. Aboriginal land rights and self-determination: the role of the Aboriginal Land SEPP

12. Aboriginal community benefit in the energy transformation: Central-West Orana and the NSWALC

13. Building on land rights: a journey in remote NSW

Section 4: Participation and future directions

14. Resolving tensions between the ALRA and the NTA in NSW

15. Preparing for Treaty: the next evolution of the land rights system

16. Reinvigorating the land rights movement: reflections on our past, present and future

17. The roles and responsibilities of the next generation

18. Land rights and women.

Aboriginal land rights recognition in 1983 came after nearly 200 years of violent colonial dispossession and the near complete loss of land. For over 40 years, NSW Aboriginal people have worked to restore their Country and people. The Aboriginal Land Rights Act in NSW includes unique features that remain unrealised in other parts of the country. The laws announced the policy of self-determination, compensation for loss, a land claims process, support for enterprises and the establishment of a network of land councils. Today there are 120 land councils that operate across the state. Yet significant features of the land rights promise remain outstanding. Less than 1 per cent of the state has been restituted to Aboriginal land councils, with tens of thousands of land claims yet to be determined. In Land Back, Professor Heidi Norman, a leading expert on Aboriginal political history, has brought together voices at the forefront of the land rights movement, including lawyers, NSW Aboriginal Land Council Youth Committee members, students, academics, activists and organisers, to share the successes, failures and possible futures of NSW land rights. - Publisher's website.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

9781761170072

xxx, 338 pages ; 24 cm