The map above shows that between the establishment of the British penal colony of New South Wales in 1788 and the mid-1960s, Indigenous Australians were deprived and dispossessed of virtually all their land.
According to Jon Altman, who created the map, this theft was justified using a number of reasons including:
- that native Australians were regarded as too savage or primitive to be land owners;
- these peoples had no notion or practice, what we term today institutions, of land ownership in the western way and no government, again in western terms;
- the land was deemed unoccupied although clearly this was not the case;
- and finally and most importantly it was argued that as hunter-gatherers, indigenous Australians did not employ agricultural practices and so a Lockean logic, the labour theory of property was mobilised to justify dispossession—those who did not till the land productively had lesser ownership rights in it.
However, starting in the 1960’s the process started to reverse and Indigenous Australians slowly began to reclaim some of their land. This coincided with the full restoration of voting rights that had been taken away at the start of the 20th century and the eventual end of the school system that led to the Stolen Generations.
While the situation today is better than it was in the mid-1960’s, land claims are still being resolved. And of course the areas that have been returned so far are mostly sparsely populated desert.
For more on this, read the excellent original source article: The political ecology and political economy of the Indigenous land titling ‘revolution’ in Australia. It goes into far more depth and includes a range of other really brilliant maps.
To learn more about the issue you may want to read:
- The Original Australians: Story of the Aboriginal People
- Aboriginal Australians: A History Since 1788
- Culture Crisis: Anthropology and Politics in Aboriginal Australia
- Sovereign Subjects: Indigenous Sovereignty Matters (Cultural Studies)
How do you feel about the theft and return of Australian Indigenous land? Leave your comments below:
![Map Of The Growth of The US From 1607 to 2022 [Video]](https://brilliantmaps.com/wp-content/uploads/maxresdefault-4-300x200.jpg)
splooge says
good the more they get back the better, hopefully thier birth rates are really high to match
Kevin_OKeeffe says
You’re a fool.
mP says
Not sure why people glamourised old cultures they are almost always brutal, the aboriginals of Australia were no different. Sure the British were bad, but the problem is you forget that the aboriginal tribal laws were significantly worse.
Rapes, executions, pedophilia, old cultures were never pleasant, one only needs to look at what the american natives or africans or anybody else to look at … i will let you fill in the blanks.
Blue5479 says
No matter how bad their laws and customs were, the land still rightfully belonged to them, so stealing the land from them was wrong.
Realist says
Total bullshit. They lost their land just like has happen to every nation throughout world history. Too bad.
Vin says
No they didn’t lose that land. That’s the point of Mabo. They were never ‘conquered’ as per the law at the time of occupation and were not removed from the land they now have legal entitlement to.
megane says
their lands were taken,it’s not the same
Luana Bagnoli says
Australia is big country the native were only 300,000 definitely less than a millions, when the British arrived there. They were mostly hunters no land owner. That is the problem they lived there, but they really owned the land?
They never even lived in some part of Australia.
Film makers made us to believe that Australian aborigines were peaceful people living with respect for the land, no really that is just a bit of a myth.
MyMobbMatter says
You were stabbed stoned to death or banished from the land of you broke a law we were not savages we have stories from generations, white people bought disease, guns alcohol pedophilia murder kidnap, chained like animals forced to work to eat our ancestors babies buried with their heads sticking out still alive get their heads baked in from the polo game on horses!! Or the kids they tied up on the bank next to croc invested waters while Crocs are them alive, water poisoned murders murders murders murders
Jay Nathaniel says
There was nothing but outright injustice and wrongful treatment of aboriginal people for centuries. It’s the ‘manifest destiny’ view. They were viewed as savages and any ill treatment was okay. It’s terrible because it’s the same with Native Americans in the U.S., tribal Hawaiians, the Adivasi people in India…
Not trying to plug, but I just read Jillian Hishaw’s book ‘Systematic Land Theft’, which chronicles America and its part of land theft past and current with Black and Indigenous people. A lot of the tactics of injustice are universal, unfortunately.
To check out her book, her website is jillianhishaw.com
Gino F. says
For those talking about blacks in America. There were no blacks here before white settlers arrived. They were brought to the States as slaves, but they never had any rights to land, just as a lot of whites don’t have any claims on land. It’s always a matter of privileged and those that have money that have claims on land planned out before most of us were alive (which is completly unfair). Native American Indians had land taken from them in the States and moved onto lesser, less productive lands. At least they have rights to do things and are allowed to harvest animals that white folks can’t.
I’m a Spaniard whose grandfather imigrated to the United States in 1920 looking for a better life for his future generations. Worked himself to death in the Anthracite coal mines of Northeastern Pennsylvania digging up coal that fired the steel to build most of America’s infrastructure still in work today. I’m a third generation imigrant that literally is struggling to make it in the so called greatest nation on Earth that has the highest homeless population and probablly the biggest wealth gaps in the world. If U need help in the U.S there is little to none. The country that refuses to take steps in saving the planet and also the most violent shootings between citizens in the world.My grandfather and the Conquistadors lol, that came before me would be happy if I returned to Spain after seeing the unfairness that is in the United States. It always come back to who got the money to claim everything. Few have it all while so many have little to nothing. People around the world have been treated unfairly for hundreds of years by a system that is rigged to make us lose. Someday the repressed will finally fight back against the rich and divide life up equally.
MyMobbMatter says
Mabo day was not about land being restored it was about black people being aloud to vote if we had to live in civilization!!!