The self divided: the problems of contradictory claims to Indigenous peoples’ self-determination in Australia

ABSTRACT

When the United Nations General Assembly endorsed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (‘UNDRIP’) in 2007, many extolled it for recognising Indigenous peoples’ right of self-determination. Although there is some consensus that all peoples have self-determination, as a legal claim it has routinely inspired criticism that it will lead to contradictory claims, interpretations, and further political contestation. Ten years after UNDRIP's endorsement, some Indigenous claims of self-determination in Australia are contradictory. While contradictory claims may not be inherently problematic, in the context explored in this article, there are problematic effects. This article examines how contradictory self-determination claims arose in response to Australia's recent Native Title Amendment (Indigenous Land Use Agreements) Act 2017 (Cth) (‘2017 Amendments’), which amended and weakened the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) (‘NTA’). It also evaluates the consequences of those contradictory claims and argues for renewed critical assessment of who legitimately determines the self who claims self-determination.

KEYWORDS:

• Indigenous peoples
• human rights
• international law
• self-determination
• Australia
• performativity

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the editors and special editors of the International Journal of Human Rights, as well as the anonymous referee, Harry Hobbs and Ben Golder for comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Stephen M. Young is a member of the Faculty of Law at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand.

ORCID

Stephen M. Young http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3472-3093

Notes

1. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, GA Res 61/295, UN GAOR, 61st sess, UN Doc A/RES/47/1 (13 September 2007) [hereinafter UNDRIP].

2. UNDRIP art 3.

3. See e.g. Convention No. 169 Concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Counties, International Labour Organization, 27 June 1989, 28 I.L.M. 1382; Howard R Berman, ‘The International Labour Organization and Indigenous Peoples: Revision of ILO Convention No. 107 at the 75th Session of the International Labour Conference, 1988’, International Commission of Jurists 47 (1988): 53.

4. Convention (No. 107) Concerning the Protection and Integration of Indigenous and Other Tribal and Semi-Tribal Populations in Independent Countries, June 26, 1957, International Labour Conference, 328 U.N.T.S. 247 (entered into force June 2, 1959).

5. See e.g. Damien Short, ‘The Social Construction of Indigenous “Native Title” Land Rights in Australia’, Current Sociology 55, no. 6 (2007): 870.

6. See e.g. James Anaya, ‘The Rights of Indigenous Peoples to Self-Determination in the Post-Declaration Era’, in Making the Declaration Work: The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, eds. Claire Charters and Rodolfo Stavenhagen (Copenhagen: International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, 2009), 184; Mario Barelli, ‘Shaping Indigenous Self Determination: Promising or Unsatisfactory Solutions?’, International Community Law Review 13, no. 4 (2011): 413; Alexandra Xanthaki, ‘The Right to Self-Determination: Meaning and Scope’, in Minorities, Peoples and Self-Determination, eds. Nazila Ghanea and Alexandra Xanthaki (Boston: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2005), 15–34; Joshua Castellino, ‘Conceptual Difficulties and the Right to Indigenous Self-Determination’, in Minorities, Peoples and Self-Determination, ibid., 55–74; Catherine J. Iorns, ‘Indigenous Peoples and Self Determination: Challenging State Sovereignty’, Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law 24 (1992): 199; Karen Knop, Diversity and Self-Determination in International Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002); Nathaniel Berman, ‘Sovereignty in Abeyance: Self-Determination and International Law’, Wisconsin Journal of International Law 7 (1988): 51.

7. Thomas D. Musgrave, Self-Determination and National Minorities (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997), 30.

8. Ibid., quoting Robert Lansing, ‘Self-Determination’, Saturday Evening Post, April 9, 1921, 101.

9. Michla Pomerance, Self-Determination in Law and Practice (London: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1982), 4; W. Ofuatey-Kodjoe, The Principle of Self-Determination in International Law (Ann Arbor: Nellen Publishing Company, Inc., 1977), 2–8; Musgrave, above note 7, 31.

10. Pomerance, above note 9, 2.

11. UN Doc A/61/PV.107, 11–15.

12. Ibid.

13. Australia, Statement on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, April 3, 2009, http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/Australia_official_statement_endorsement_UNDRIP.pdf; Australian Human Rights Commission, ‘Questions and Answers on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2009)’, Australian Human Rights Commission, April 2, 2009, https://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/questions-and-answers-un-declaration-rights-indigenous-peoples-2009; New Zealand, House of Representatives, Ministerial Statements – UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples – Government Support, April 20, 2010, Hansard, vol. 662, 10029, https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/document/49HansD_20100420_00000071/ministerial-statements-un-declaration-on-the-rights-of; Canada, Statement of Support on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, November 12, 2010, http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1309374239861/1309374546142; United States, Remarks by the President at the White House Tribal Nations Conference, December 16, 2010, https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2010/12/16/remarks-president-white-house-tribal-nations-conference.

14. James Tully, ‘The Struggles of Indigenous Peoples for and of Freedom’, in Public Philosophy in a New Key (Cambridge University Press, 2008), 279–80.

15. Tully, above note 14, 276.

16. Patrick Macklem, The Sovereignty of Human Rights (Oxford University Press, 2015), 158.

17. Tully, above note 14, 279–80.

18. Ibid., 276.

19. See e.g. Patrick Thornberry, Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002), Ch 2; Ben Saul, ‘Identifying “Indigenous” Peoples in International Law’, Sydney Law School, Legal Studies Research Paper No. 16.40 (2016); Benedict Kingsbury, ‘“Indigenous Peoples” in International Law: A Constructivist Approach to the Asian Controversy’, American Journal of International Law 92 (1998): 414.

20. Note, above note 11.

21. Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (Routledge, 1993), 2.

22. The nation-to-nation relationship may be, as Tully forecasted, a type of ‘treaty federalism’. Tully, above note 14, 279–80.

23. See Short, above note 5, 859.

24. Butler, Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex” (Routledge, 1993), 3.

25. Ibid.

26. Richard G. Roberts et al., ‘The Human Colonisation of Australia: Optical Dates of 53,000 and 60,000 Years Bracket Human Arrival at Deaf Adder Gorge, Northern Territory’, Quarternary Science Reviews 13 (1994): 575.

27. New South Wales Act 1823 (UK).

28. Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900 (Imp).

29. Elisa Arcioni, ‘Excluding Indigenous Australians from “the People”: A Reconsideration of Sections 25 and 127 of the Constitution’ (2012) 40 Federal Law Review 287, 292.

30. (1992) 175 CLR 1, [75].

31. Irene Watson, Aboriginal Peoples, Colonialism and International Law: Raw Law (New York: Routledge, 2015), 42.

32. Ibid., 40.

33. See Butler, above note 24, 3.

34. Short, above note 5, 860.

35. Ibid., 861–62.

36. NTA Pt 1, s (3)(b).

37. NTA ss 28(f), 25(3), 29, 35, 38.

38. NTA s 36.

39. There are three cases where the RTN process has not overridden native title claimants concerns. Western Desert Lands Aboriginal Corporation (Jamukurnu-Yapalikunu)/Western Australia/Holocene Pty Ltd [2009] NNTTA 49 (27 May 2009); Weld Range Metals Limited/Western Australia/Simpson [2011] NNTTA 172; Seven Star Investments Group Pty Ltd/Western Australia/Freddie [2011] NNTTA 5.

40. (1996) 187 CLR 1.

41. Short, above note 5, 860.

42. John Howard, ‘Amended Wik 10-Point Plan’, Prime Minister of Australia, News Release, May 8, 1997; cf National Indigenous Working Group, ‘Critique of the 10 Point Plan’, Indigenous Law Bulletin 4, no. 3 (1997): 10.

43. See Katharine Gelber, ‘Human Rights Treaties in Australia – Empty Words?’, Australian Review of Public Affairs, April 12, 2001, http://www.australianreview.net/digest/2001/04/gelber.html; Greg Marks, ‘Australia, the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and Indigenous Rights’, Indigenous Law Bulletin 6, no. 7 (2004): 11; also Richard Bartlett, ‘A Return to Dispossession and Discrimination: The Ten Point Plan’, University of Western Australia Law Review 27 (1997): 50.

44. Australia's Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) gave domestic effect to its ratification of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

45. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Decision 2 (54) on Australia – Concluding Observations/Comments, March 18, 1999, 6, UN Doc CERD/C/54/MISC.40/rev.2, para 13.

46. Ibid., [87], citing Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, General Recommendation XXI – Right to self-determination, 48th sess, 1996, UN Doc: A/45/18, para 7–9; and Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, General Recommendation XXIII concerning Indigenous Peoples, August 18, 1997, UN Doc CERD/C/51/Misc.13/Rev.4.

47. Human Rights Council, Final Report of the Study on Indigenous Peoples and the Right to Participate in Decision-Making: Report of the Expert Mechanism on the Right of Indigenous Peoples, UN DOC A/HRC/18/42 Annex ¶ 20 (Aug. 17, 2011).

48. UNDRIP arts 3, 18, 21(1), 23, and 32(1).

49. See Christopher Tomlins, ‘“Be Operational, or Disappear”: Thoughts on a Present Discontent’, Annual Review of Law and Social Sciences 12 (2016): 1, 10–12.

50. [2010] 189 FCR 412.

51. See NTA, s 24CD(1).

52. Bygrave, above note 50, [56].

53. Ibid., [85].

54. The Senate, Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee, Native Title Amendment (Indigenous Land Use Agreements) Bill 2017, 10, citing Ms Livermore, Proof Committee Hansard, March 13, 2017, 2.

55. [2017] FCAFC 10.

56. (2006) 230 ALR 603.

57. Harry Hobbs and George Williams, ‘The Noongar Settlement: Australia's First Treaty’, Sydney Law Review 40 (2018): (forthcoming, 26).

58. See also South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council, John Host and Chris Own, “It's Still In My Heart, This Is My Country” The Single Noongar Claim History (University of Western Australia Press, 2009).

59. (2006) 230 ALR 603, paras. 445–446.

60. Ibid., Introductory Statement of Justice Wilcox, paras. 872–76.

61. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commission, Native title Report 2007 (Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, 2008), 149.

62. Ibid., 146.

63. See Glen Kelly and Stuart Bradfield, ‘Winning Native Title, or Winning out of Native Title? The Noongar Native Title Settlement’, Indigenous Law Bulletin 9, no. 2 (2012): 14; generally Richard Bartlett, ‘An Obsession with Traditional Laws and Customs Creates Difficulty Establishing Native Title Claims in the South: Yorta’, Western Australia Law Review 31 (2003): 35–46.

64. [2008] FCAFC 63.

65. Hobbs and Williams, above note 57, 26.

66. Kathryn Diss, ‘Claimants Ink $1.3 Billion Western Australia Noongar Native Title Deal’, ABC News, March 30, 2015, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-30/south-west-noongar-native-title-deal-inked/6357746.

67. See Michael Mccagh, ‘Native Title in the Southwest: The Noongar Recognition Bill’, Indigenous Law Bulletin 18, no. 8 (2015): 26; Department of Premier and Cabinet, ‘Noongars Vote to Accept Historic Offer’, News Release, March 30, 2015, https://www.mediastatements.wa.gov.au/Pages/Barnett/2015/03/Noongars-vote-to-accept-historic-offer.aspx.

68. Shireen Morris, ‘Lessons from New Zealand: Towards a Better Working Relationship Between Indigenous Peoples and the State’, Australian Indigenous Law Review 18 (2015): 79–80; Hobbs and Williams, above note 57, 31.

69. Hobbs and Williams, above note 57.

70. Land Administration (South West Native Title Settlement) Act 2016 (WA) Preamble; Noongar (Koorah, Nitja, Boordahwan) (Past, Present, Future) Recognition Act 2016 (WA).

71. Ibid.

72. McGlade, above note 55, paras 234–247, 490–495. Native title claimants can remove an RNTC member according to NTA s 66B. There are problems with s 66B, including procedural burdens as well as the sensitive matter of uttering the names of deceased peoples.

73. Explanatory Memorandum, Native Title Amendment (Indigenous Land Use Agreements) Bill 2017 (Cth), [11] [hereinafter EM]. There are three types of ILUAs, one of which is area ILUAs. See NTA Subdiv C of Div 3 Pt 2. I use ‘area ILUAs’ and ‘ILUAs’ synonymously throughout.

74. EM, above note 73, [2]; The Amendment Act s 24CD(2)(a), states that if a person(s) have been nominated or determined under subsection 251A(2) they may sign an ILUA. If no person(s) have been nominated or determined under subsection 251A(2), then a majority of the RNTC is sufficient to register an ILUA. Section 251A(2) allows a native title claim group to nominate one person who comprise the RNTC to be a party to the agreement or specify a process for determining which person(s) who comprise the RNTC it to be a party/parties.

75. Burragubba and Johnson, below note 104.

76. Short, above note 5, 861–62.

77. EM, Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights, above note 73, paras. 9–21. Other submissions also upheld the Amendment as consistent with self-determination, UNDRIP and Indigenous peoples’ rights.

78. Rodney Carter (Group Chief Executive Officer of the Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation) Submission No 13 to Amendment Bill 2017, March 2, 2017; Yawuru Native Title Holders Aboriginal Corporation, Submission No 42 to Amendment Bill 2017, 3.

79. Glen Colbung, Submission No 7 to Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee, Native Title Amendment (Indigenous Land Use Agreements) Bill 2017 [hereinafter Amendment Bill 2017], March 2, 2017, 3; David Collard, Submission No 11 to Amendment Bill 2017, March 2, 2017, 2–3; Stuart Bradfield, Submission No 46 to Amendment Bill 2017, March 3, 2017, 2–3.

80. Suzanne Kelly, Submission No 10 to Amendment Bill 2017, March 2, 2017, 2.

81. Kelly and Bradfield, above note 63, 15.

82. Glen Kelly, Submission No 9 to Amendment Bill 2017, March 2, 2017, 2.

83. Name Withheld, Submission No to Amendment Bill 2017, 2.

84. Ghillar, Michael Anderson, Convenor of Sovereign Union of First Nations and Peoples in Australia, Submission No 36 to Amendment Bill 2017, March 3, 2017, 1; also, National Congress of Australia's First Peoples, Submission No 57 to Amendment Bill 2017, March 2017, 5–6.

85. Richie Ah Mat, Gerhard Pearson and Noel Pearson, Submission No 14 to Amendment Bill 2017, March 3, 2017, [13].

86. Mervyn Eads, Margaret Culbong, Mingli McGlade, and Naomi Smit, Submission No 24 to Amendment Bill 2017, 1.

87. Albert Corunna, Submission No 5 to Amendment Bill 2017, 1–2.

88. Adani Mining Pty Ltd and Another v Adrian Burragubba, Patrick Malone and Irene White on behalf of the Wangan and Jagalingou People [2015] NNTTA 16, April 8, 2015, paras. 14, 20 [hereinafter Adani v Burragubba].

89. Ibid., [29].

90. Ibid; also, Wangan and Jagalingou, ‘EXPLAINER: Representation of W&J’, Wangan & Jagalingou Family Council, August 21, 2015, http://wanganjagalingou.com.au/representation/.

91. See Carl Jackson, ‘Wangan and Jagalingou People Take on Coal Giant Adani’, Redflag, April 12, 2015, http://redflag.org.au/article/wangan-and-jagalingou-people-take-coal-giant-adani; ‘Traditional Owners Reject Adani's Huge Carmichael Coal Mine in Queensland's Galilee Basin’, Green Left Weekly, March 28, 2015, https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/58640.

92. Adani v Burragubba, above note 88.

93. Burragubba v State of Queensland [2016] FCA 984, August 19, 2016.

94. Ibid.

95. Lisa Cox, ‘Gautam Adani Makes Special Request to Malcolm Turnbull over $15b Deal’, Canberra Times (online), December 9, 2015, http://www.canberratimes.com.au/business/mining-and-resources/adani-demanded-certainty-from-turnbull-20151208-gliuk8.html.

96. ‘Adani Group Seeks Uncontestable Nod from Australia for Its Mega Projects’, The Economic Times (online), December 8, 2015 http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-12-08/news/68865561_1_gautam-adani-galilee-basin-adani-group.

97. Joshua Robertson, ‘Traditional Owners Vote to Sack Representatives Who Received Benefits from Adani’, The Guardian, March 21, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/mar/21/adani-mine-traditional-owners-vote-to-sack-representatives-who-received-benefits-from-adani. In Burragubba on behalf of the Wangan and Jagalingou People v State of Queensland [2017] FCA 373, April 11, 2017, paras. 33–38, Justice Reeves found that the meeting ‘was to address concerns held by a minority of the members of the existing W& J Application and those members of the W&J claim group who held the same concerns, relating to the ILUA negotiations with Adani’.

98. Michael McKenna, ‘Greens Bankroll Indigenous Rebels Opposed to Carmichael Mine’, The Australian, March 12, 2016, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/indigenous/greens-bankroll-indigenous-rebels-opposed-to-carmichael-mine/news-story/001f2f4514e07829a5318f88cc444587.

99. Ibid.

100. Ibid.

101. ‘Acrimony and Legal Threat as Indigenous Groups Approves Adani Mine’, The Guardian, April 16, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/apr/17/wangan-and-jagalingou-indigenous-group-approves-adani-carmichael-mine.

102. Wangan Jagalingou, ‘Traditional Owners’ Rejection of Carmichael Stands, Despite Adani Bank Rolling Bogus “Land Use Agreement”’, Wangan & Jagalingou Family Council, April 16, 2016, http://wanganjagalingou.com.au/traditional-owners-rejection-of-carmichael-stands-despite-adani-bank-rolling-bogus-land-use-agreement/.

103. Ibid.

104. Adrian Burragubba and Murrawah Johnson, Submission No 17 to Amendment Bill 2017, 7 March 2017, 4 annex Martin Wagner, Australia's Ongoing Violation of the Rights of the Wangan & Jagalingou People to Be Adequately Consulted in Good Faith about the Development of the Native Title Amendment (Indigenous Land Use Agreements) Bill 2017 (Cth) and its impacts on the Wangan & Jagalingou, 1 March 2017, 5–11; Helen Szoke, Oxfam Australia, Submission No 43 to Amendment Bill 2017, 1. It seems unlikely that submitting comments to the Senate and testifying satisfies FPIC. I do not analyse that issue here.

105. Wangan Jagalingou, ‘Traditional Owners Condemn Brandis’ “Adani Amendment” to Native Title Act as a Con on the Public’, Wangan & Jagalingou Family Council, February 13, 2017, http://wanganjagalingou.com.au/traditional-owners-condemn-brandis-adani-amendment-to-native-title-act-as-a-con-on-the-public/.

106. Short, above note 5, 861–62.

107. Adrian Burragubba and Murrawah Johnson, ‘Update on the Situation of the Wangan and Jagalingou People's Opposition to the Proposed Carmichael Coal Mine and Comments on Australia's Response to the Special Rapporteur's Letter Dated 1 April 2016’, Wangan & Jagalingou Family Council, March 8, 2017, http://wanganjagalingou.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Wangan-Jagalingou-reply-submission-to-SR-indigenous-peoples-17-03-10.pdf, 1,2, 7.

108. Philip Hunter, HWL Ebsworth Lawyers, Submission No 23 to Amendment Bill 2017, paras. 7–19.

109. Kelly and Bradfield, above note 63, 15.

110. See Ann Genovese, ‘Turning the Tides of History’, Griffith Review (2003–2004).

111. Kelly and Bradfield, above note 63, 14.

112. McKenna, above note 98.

113. Ibid.

114. Eads, Culbong, McGlade and Smit, above note 85, 1; Burragubba and Johnson, above note 107, 7.

115. Wangan and Jagalingou, above notes 102 and 105.

116. Ibid., 279–80.

117. Notes, above note 43, 45.

118. ‘End of Mission Statement by United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz on her visit to Australia’, April 3, 2017, http://unsr.vtaulicorpuz.org/site/index.php/statements/181-end-statement-australia.

119. UNDRIP arts 11, 18, 21(1), 23, and 32(1).

120. Pomerance, above note 9, 2.

121. Butler, above note 24, 3.

122. South West Aboriginal Land & Sea Council, Aboriginal Corporation Rule Book, December 24, 2014, s 1.1(b); Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006 (Cth).

123. Kelly and Bradfield, above note 63, 15.

124. Stephen Cornell, ‘Processes of Native Nationhood: The Indigenous Politics of Self-Government’, International Indigenous Policy Journal 6, no. 4 (2015): 10.

125. Corunna, above note 87, 1.

126. See Burragubba on behalf of the Wangan and Jagalingou People v State of Queensland [2017] FCA 373, April 22, 2017, paras. 37–38.

127. Corunna, above note 87; Eads, Culbog, McGlade and Smit, above note 86.

128. Diss, above note 66.

129. Eads, Culbong, McGlade and Smit, above note 85, 1.

130. Corunna, above note 87, 2.

131. Wangan Jagalingou, above note 102, 3–4.

132. Wangan and Jagalingou, Facebook.com, November 28, 2017, https://www.facebook.com/WanganandJagalingou/videos/1944744928874008/?hc_ref=ARRnfZddHt9kapkuxJZmo31YrcC_LY-3XUvVuoY8mGaJ7tM8ZPg70huWYvb8D7yLug8&fref=nf.

133. See Short, above note 5, 859.

134. Butler, above note 21, 2.

135. Cornell, above note 124, 10.

136. Musgrave, above note 7, citing Lansing, above note 8.