Removing the Veil from the ‘Rights of Nature’: The Dichotomy between First Nations Customary Rights and Environmental Legal Personhood

Abstract

The legal concept of the creation of a legal entity is not trailblazing territory of itself, although introducing and advocating for the legal personality of a river may be. However, advocating for the rights of nature on grounds that all humans over-exploit, abuse and contaminate the environment is as misleading as it is untrue. The Indigenous peoples of Australia have a primary, unique and inherent obligation to ‘Care for Country’ according to the Indigenous rule of law; exercising the protection and management of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander environment. The Indigenous rule of law and the obligation to ‘Care for Country’ stretches back many millennia yet Australian domestic laws and policies fail to properly support the exercise of such obligations by Indigenous Australians. In this article I argue, rather than embracing a ‘rights of nature’ property paradigm in Australia, we should instead empower First Nations people to take a pivotal, even primary, role in caring for Country.

Notes

1 See Virginia Marshall, Overturning Aqua Nullius: Securing Aboriginal Water Rights (Aboriginal Studies Press 2017) 8–9.

2 See Virginia Marshall, ‘A Reconstructed Metaphor for Aboriginal Property Rights and Interests in Australia: The Challenges in Normalising Aboriginal Ontology into Western Concepts of Knowledge and Resources’ in Natalie P Stoinanoff (ed) Indigenous Knowledge Forum – Comparative Systems for Recognising and Protecting Indigenous Knowledge and Culture (LexisNexis Butterworths 2017) 155; Melissa Nursey-Bray and the Arabana Aboriginal Corporation, The Arabana People, Water and Developing Cultural Indicators for Country, (Goyder Institute for Water Research Technical Report Series No 15/29, 2015) 26–7.

3 Select Committee on Native Title Rights in Western Australia Parliament of Western Australia, Transcript of Evidence Taken at, Perth, Thursday13 November 1997 (online) <https://parliament.wa.gov.au/Parliament/commit.nsf/(Evidence+Lookup+by+Com+ID)/7B64585E245BE1F548257831003AFF93/$file/971113nt.pdf> (last accessed 3 June 2020) 16.

4 As above.

5 David R Boyd, The Rights of Nature: A Legal Revolution that Could Save the World (ECW 2017) xxxiii–xxxvi.

6 Commonwealth, Parliamentary Debates, House of Representatives, 13 February 2008, 167–73 (Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister) (‘The National Apology’) <https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/genpdf/chamber/hansardr/2008-02-13/0002/hansard_frag.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf> (last accessed 3 June 2020).

7 (2008) 236 CLR 24.

8 Northern Territory v Arnhem Land Aboriginal Land Trust (2008) 236 CLR 24 at 69–70 [70] (Kirby J).

9 At 70 [71].

10 At 70 [72].

11 The National Apology.

12 See Mary Christina Wood, Nature’s Trust: Environmental Law for a New Ecological Age (Cambridge University Press 2014) 143.

13 Gerald Torres and Nathan Bellinger, ‘The Public Trust: The Law’s DNA’ (2014) 4(2) Wake Forest Journal of Law and Policy 281, 283–4.

14 See Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act 2017 s 14.

15 Jacinta Ruru, ‘Indigenous Restitution in Settling Water Claims: The Developing Cultural and Commercial Redress Opportunities in Aotearoa, New Zealand’ (2013) 22(2) Pacific Rim Law and Policy Journal 311, 340–1.

16 As above at 341. See Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act 2017 s 20.

17 For the term Country, see Marshall above note 2 at 12 which states, ‘Water landscapes hold meaning and purpose under Aboriginal laws. After thousands of years, the spiritual relationship of being part of Country remains integral, and despite the significant political and social change heaved upon the lives of Aboriginal communities the sacredness of water shapes the identity and values of Aboriginal peoples.’

18 Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, Australian and UNESCO World Heritage Sites List <https://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/world-heritage-list> (last accessed 31 March 2019).

19 SJ Pyne, Burning Bush: A Fire History of Australia (University of Washington Press 1991). See Bruce Pascoe, Dark Emu Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident? (Magabala Books 2014); Tim Flannery, ‘After the Future: Australia’s New Extinction Crisis’ (2012) Quarterly Essay 48; Australian State of the Environment Committee, State of the Environment (Independent Report to the Minister for Sustainability Environment Water Population and Communities, Canberra 2011) 575.

20 Marshall above note 2 at 16.

21 See Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Women’s Council Aboriginal Corporation, Traditional Healers of Central Australia: Ngangkari (Magabala Books 2013).

22 Law Reform Commission, The Recognition of Aboriginal Customary Laws (Report 31 Vol 1, 1986) 15.

23 Diane Bell and Pam Ditton, Law, the Old and the New: Aboriginal Women in Central Australia Speak Out (Aboriginal History 1984, 2nd edn) as cited in as above.

24 Mary Magulagi Yarmirr, ‘Women and Land Rights: Past, Present and Future’ in Galarrwuy Yunupingu (ed) Our Land is Our Life: Land Rights – Past, Present and Future (University of Queensland 1997).

25 Marcia Langton, ‘Grandmothers’ Law, Company Business and Succession in Changing Aboriginal Land Tenure Systems’ in Galarrwuy Yunupingu (ed) Our Land is Our Life: Land Rights – Past, Present and Future (University of Queensland Press 1997) 90. Deborah Bird Rose, as cited in Langton.

26 Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytatjara Women’s Council Aboriginal Corporation above note 22 at 11 (Dr Helen Milroy).

27 Virginia Marshall, First Nations’ Perspective on Legal Rights for Rivers paper presented at Exploring the Legal Status of Nature, University of Melbourne, 11 August 2017.

28 Gumana v Northern Territory (No 1) (2005)141 FCR 457 (Selway J) (Summary).

29 At 32, 36.

30 At 217.

31 See Northern Territory v Arnhem Land Aboriginal Land Trust [2008] 236 CLR 24 (Gleeson CJ, Gummow, Hayne, Crennan, Kirby JJ, Heydon and Kiefel JJ dissenting) held that the Yolgnu peoples of east Arnhem Land, including the Blue Mud Bay areas hold an exclusive right to tidal waters and intertidal zones within the boundaries of the grants held pursuant to the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (Cth).

32 See Glossary in Appendix 1 of this case. Gutharra in Yolgnu language describes a complex family relationship of ‘daughter’s child (woman speaking), sister’s daughter’s child (man speaking).’

33 As above. Mari is the reciprocal term in the mari-gutharra kinship relations.

34 Gumana v Northern Territory (No 1) (2005) 141 FCR 457, 507–8 [185]. Mr Gumana and other senior law men in giving evidence qualified their law that flora, fauna, the land or waters on Country of their clan held ownership rights.

35 At 512 [206].

36 Referring to Aboriginal peoples of mainland Australia.

37 Virginia Marshall, ‘A Web of Aboriginal Water Rights: Examining the Competing Aboriginal Claim for Water Property Rights and Interests in Australia’ (PhD thesis, Macquarie University, Sydney, 2014) 37.

38 Referring to Aboriginal peoples of mainland Australia.

39 Marshall above note 38 at 165.

40 See Lionel Murphy QC in Michael Connor, The Invention of Terra Nullius: Historical and Legal Fictions on the Foundation of Australia (Macleay Press 2005) 15.

41 Debra Hughes-Hallett, ‘A Project with the Swan River Trust, Indigenous History of the Swan and Canning Rivers’ (Curtin University 2010) <https://d1y4ma8ribhabl.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/indigenous-history-of-the-swan-and-canning-rivers.pdf> (last accessed 21 July 2020).

42 As above.

43 Risk v Northern Territory (2002) 210 CLR 392 (Gleeson CJ, Gaudron, Kirby and Hayne JJ) [28–29].

44 Bruce Ziff, Principles of Property Law (Carswell 2010, 5th edn) 36–41. See J Locke, Two Treatises of Government (New York 1963 [1690], Mentor edn); J Locke, The Second Treatise of Civil Government and a Letter Concerning Toleration, J W Gough (ed) (Basil Blackwell 1946).

45 As above.

46 As above.

47 Ziff above note 45 at 39.

48 See David Hume, ‘A Treatise of Human Nature’ in TH Green and TH Grose (eds) The Philosophical Works of David Hume (Longmans, Greens and Co 1875) cited in Bruce Ziff, Principles of Property Law (Carswell 2010, 5th edn).

49 Samantha Hepburn, Principles of Property Law (Routledge-Cavendish 2006, 3rd edn) 7–8.

50 As above.

51 JC Smith and David N Weisstub, The Western Idea of Law (Butterworths 1983) 581.

52 As above.

53 Roderick Nash, The Rights of Nature: A History of Environmental Ethics (Primavera Press 1990) 22.

54 Marshall above note 38 at 162.

55 (1992) 175 CLR 1.

56 Marshall above note 38 at 150.

57 As above.

58 See PG McHugh, Aboriginal Title: The Modern Jurisprudence of Tribal Land Rights (Oxford University Press 2011) 114–5.

59 Roderick Nash, The Rights of Nature: A History of Environmental Ethics (Primavera Press 1990) 4.

60 David R Boyd, The Rights of Nature: A Legal Revolution that could Save the World (ECW 2017) xxiv.

61 As above.

62 Marshall above note 2 at 150.

63 Roderick Nash, The Rights of Nature: A History of Environmental Ethics (Primavera Press 1990) 23.

64 Terry N Tobias, ‘Chief Kerry’s Moose: A Guide to Land Use and Occupancy Mapping Research Design and Data Collection’ (Research Report’, Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs and Ecotrust Canada 2000) 16.

65 As above at 27–32.

66 Marcia Langton, An Aboriginal Ontology of Being and Place: The Performance of Aboriginal Property Relations in the Princess Charlotte Bay Area of Eastern Cape York Peninsula, Australia (D Phil Thesis, Macquarie University, 2005) 434.

67 Joseph Stromberg, ‘What is the Anthropocene and are we in it?’ Smithsonian Magazine (online) [January 2013] <https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-is-the-anthropocene-and-are-we-in-it-164801414/> (last accessed 31 August 2018).

68 See Randall S Abate, Climate Change and the Voiceless: Protecting Future Generations, Wildlife, and Natural Resources (Cambridge University Press 2020) 11.

69 Boyd above note 61 at xxxiv.

70 Mary Christina Wood, Natures Trust: Environmental Law for a New Ecological Age (Cambridge University Press 2014) 261.

71 As above at 262–7.

72 As above at 267.

73 As above at 272–3.

74 The International Water Law Project was created and led by Professor Gabriel Eckstein, School of Law at Texas A & M University. Professor Eckstein invited six scholars to explore the issues on concepts such as the rights of nature and the legal personhood of rivers as an online discussion. See the author’s essay in Virginia Marshall, ‘Overturning Aqua Nullius – An Aboriginal Perspective on Personhood’ International Water Law Project (online, 2018) <https://www.internationalwaterlaw.org/blog/2018/04/09/overturning-aqua-nullius-an-aboriginal-perspective-on-personhood/> (last accessed 31 August 2018).

75 Douglas E Fisher, Australian Environmental Law: Norms, Principles and Rules (Thomson Reuters 2014, 3rd edn) 7 [1.60].

76 As above at 5 [1.40].

77 As above at 4 [1.20].

78 As above at 55 [2.230].

79 As above at 55–6. D Fisher citing Paul Taylor, Respect for Nature: A Theory of Environmental Ethics (Princeton University Press 1986) 172–92.

80 Marshall above note 38 at 136.

81 Ariella D’Andrea, ‘Can the River be a Person in the Eye of the Law?’ in Gabriel Eckstein, Ariella D’Andrea, Virginia Marshall, Erin O’Donnell, Julia Talbot-Jones, Deborah Curran and Katie O’Bryan, ‘Conferring Legal Personality on the World’s Rivers: A Brief Intellectual Assessment’, Water International (2019) <https://doi.org/10.1080/02508060.2019.1631558/> (last accessed 2 July 2019) XXXX.

82 Virginia Marshall, ‘Overturning Aqua Nullius: An Aboriginal Perspective on Personhood’ in Gabriel Eckstein, Ariella D’Andrea, Virginia Marshall, Erin O’Donnell, Julia Talbot-Jones, Deborah Curran and Katie O’Bryan (eds) ‘Conferring Legal Personality on the World’s Rivers: A Brief Intellectual Assessment’ Water International (2019) <https://doi.org/10.1080/02508060.2019.1631558/> (last accessed 2 July 2019).

83 The Uluru Statement from the Heart (National Constitutional Convention, 2017) <https://www.referendumcouncil.org.au/sites/default/files/2017-05/Uluru_Statement_From_The_Heart_0.PDF> (last accessed at 21 July 2020).

84 As above.

85 Mabo v Queensland (No 2) (1992) 175 CLR 1.

86 See clause 3, the Preamble of the Intergovernmental Agreement on the National Water Initiative (2004).

87 Marshall above note 2 at 115.

88 As above.

89 Universal Declaration of Rights of Mother Earth (World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, 24 April 2010) <https://pwccc.wordpress.com/2010/04/24/proposal-universal-declaration-of-the-rights-of-mother-earth/> (last accessed 31 August 2018).

90 Marshall above note 75.

91 As above.

92 As above.

93 As above.

94 As above.

95 Mohd. Salim v State of Uttarakhand (20 March 2017) Writ Petition (PIL) No. 126 of 2014. High Court of Uttarakhand at Nainital <http://www.indiancourts.nic.in/ddir/uhc/RS/orders/22-3-2017/RS20032017WPPIL262014.pdf> (last accessed 21 July 2020).

96 Yogendra Nath Naskar v Commission of Income Tax (18 February 1969) AIR 1089, 1969 SCR (3) 742. Supreme Court of India <https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1874024/> (last accessed 21 July 2020).

97 Shriomani Gurudwara Prabandhak v Shri Som Nath Dass (Supreme Court of India, 29 March 2000) <https://indiakanoon.org/doc/1478973/> (last accessed 21 July 2020).

98 Mohd. Salim v State of Uttarakhand (20 March 2017) Writ Petition (PIL) No. 126 of 2014. High Court of Uttarakhand at Nainital <http://www.indiancourts.nic.in/ddir/uhc/RS/orders/22-3-2017/RS20032017WPPIL262014.pdf> (last accessed 21 July 2020).

99 Australian Government, National Water Initiative <http://www.agriculture.gov.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/water/Intergovernmental-Agreement-on-a-national-water-initiative.pdf> (last accessed 31 August 2018).

100 Select Committee on Native Title Rights in Western Australia Parliament of Western Australia, Transcript of Evidence Taken at, Perth, Thursday13 November 1997 (online) <https://parliament.wa.gov.au/Parliament/commit.nsf/(Evidence+Lookup+by+Com+ID)/7B64585E245BE1F548257831003AFF93/$file/971113nt.pdf> (last accessed 3 June 2020) 16. Mr Kenny Oobagooma giving evidence to the Select Committee.

101 JCZ Woinarski, MF Braby, AA Burbidge, D Coates, ST Garnett, RJ Fensham, SM Legge, NL McKenzie, JL Silcock and BP Murphy, ‘Reading the Black Book: The Number, Timing, Distribution and Causes of Listed Extinctions in Australia’ (2019) 239 Biological Conservation 1.

102 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, National Report: Overview and Recommendations (1991) vol 1 [1.7.23] <http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/national/vol1/> (last accessed 21 July 2020).