Aboriginal Title and Indigenous Peoples
Aboriginal Title and Indigenous Peoples
Canada, Australia, and New Zealand
Delgamuukw. Mabo. Ngati Apa. These cases and others have in recent years created a framework for litigating Aboriginal title in countries such as Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The contributors to this path-breaking book argue that our understanding of where the concept of Aboriginal title came from – and where it may be going – can also be enhanced by exploring legal developments in these former British settler colonies in a comparative and multidisciplinary framework.
Aboriginal Title and Indigenous Peoples brings together a distinguished group of scholars who trace how the doctrine of Aboriginal title evolved as indigenous peoples and their laws interacted with settlers and the legal systems that developed in these three common law countries. Part 1 reveals the historical role that legislatures and courts played in the extinguishment and acquisition of Aboriginal title and land. Part 2 shows that although each country’s development was distinctive, common issues and legal developments shaped – and continue to inform – indigenous peoples’ struggle for recognition of their rights.
These tightly integrated essays offer a perspective on Aboriginal title and land rights that extends beyond national borders to consider similar developments in common law countries.
Students and scholars of law, history, Native studies, anthropology, and political science will welcome this book’s fresh insights and perspective.
The book is a major contribution to the widespread controversies over how the contemporary state and minority peoples/nations within it can come to an enduring rapprochement…the editors and contributors have produced a volume that should be on the bookshelf of every serious scholar studying Aboriginal issues.
This collection offers a welcome contribution to the growing literature on comparative Indigenous rights frameworks…it should help stimulate further thinking that crosses national and disciplinary borders while addressing issues of interest to the Great Plains.
This book enriches the literature, which is not greatly endowed with comparative scholarship on indigenous rights, and it will help scholars, policy makers, students, and indigenous groups to better appreciate both historical and recent legal developments in common law jurisdictions.
This book makes a significant original contribution to its field … If Commonwealth countries like Canada, Australia, and New Zealand cannot find better forms of accommodation between indigenous peoples and governments, then they will remain badly flawed democracies.
Louis A. Knafla is a professor emeritus of the Department of History and director of socio-legal studies at the University of Calgary. Haijo Westra is a professor of Greek and Roman studies at the University of Calgary.
Contributors: Brian Ballantyne, Paul L.A.H. Chartrand, Peter W. Hutchins, Kenichi Matsui, Kent McNeil, Nicolas Peterson, Arthur Ray, Bruce Rigsby, Jacinta Ruru, and David Yarrow
Introduction. “This Is Our Land”: Aboriginal Title at Customary and Common Law in Comparative Contexts / Louis A. Knafla
Part 1: Sovereignty, Extinguishment, and Expropriation of Aboriginal Title
1 From the US Indian Claims Commission Cases to Delgamuukw: Facts, Theories, and Evidence in North American Land Claims / Arthur Ray
2 Social Theory, Expert Evidence, and the Yorta Yorta Rights Appeal Decision / Bruce Rigsby
3 Law’s Infidelity to Its Past: The Failure to Recognize Indigenous Jurisdiction in Australia and Canada / David Yarrow
4 The Defence of Native Title and Dominion in Sixteenth-Century Mexico Compared with Delgamuukw / Haijo Westra
5 Beyond Aboriginal Title in Yukon: First Nations Land Registries / Brian Ballantyne
Part 2: Native Land, Litigation, and Indigenous Rights
6 The “Race” for Recognition: Toward a Policy of Recognition of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada / Paul L.A.H. Chartrand
7 The Sources and Content of Indigenous Land Rights in Australia and Canada: A Critical Comparison / Kent McNeil
8 Common Law, Statutory Law, and the Political Economy of the Recognition of Indigenous Australian Rights in Land / Nicolas Peterson
9 Claiming Native Title in the Foreshore and Seabed / Jacinta Ruru
10 Waterpower Developments and Native Water Rights Struggles in the North American West in the Early Twentieth Century: A View from Three Stoney Nakoda Cases / Kenichi Matsui
Conclusion. Power and Principle: State-Indigenous Relations across Time and Space / Peter W. Hutchins
Selected Bibliography; General Index; Index of Cases; Index of Statutes, Treaties, and Agreements
