Petitioning for Land by O'Brien Karen

Author:O'Brien, Karen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury UK

5

Contemporary Petitioning

Achieving land rights: Socio-legal perspectives

The petitions of First Nations provided the formal means by which the transformation of the direst of circumstances was brought about. The narrative contained within traverses an ocean of emotions from harrowing expressions of desperation to unwavering appeals for social justice. They played a part in the process of overcoming the intersecting matrices of oppression, in drawing attention to colonial violence and appealing for social justice and they were instrumental in setting the standards for future intercultural relations.

The petitioning undertaken by First Australians in Australia is noteworthy for having played a significant part in achieving landmark legal achievements in land reclamation. It has influenced many successful outcomes in the course of contemporary agreement-making. As a direct result of the Yirrkala bark petitions, the Yolgnu claimed rights to land that was earmarked for mining. The petitioning by the Yorta Yorta people of the Maloga Mission on the Murray River of New South Wales in 1881 established the right to self-sufficiency through farming and regained access to traditional lands, the South Australian government granted a new license for the land requested at Point Macleay in July 1872, and the station of Coranderrk was established through petitioning as a place for propagating First Australian self-determination.

The tradition of petitioning has laid the groundwork for other legal land claims. This is especially the case with Australian Native Title land claims where the narrative of petitions is now depicted in paintings. In First Australian native title claims, contemporary painted images of country are accepted without hesitation as evidence of prior land ownership and cultural continuity. Artist-claimants of the far western desert have successfully put forward collaborative canvases to provide legal testimony in native title land claims.1 The Ngurrara canvas is a collective work by over sixty artists, a collaboration from memory of prior land ownership at Pirnini, south west of Fitzroy Crossing, on the northern edge of the Great Sandy Desert in the southern Kimberley region. Artist-claimants created two canvases, the second, produced in 1997, measured eight metres by ten metres.2 In June 2005, the Australian Federal Court recognised the exclusive right of the Ngaanyatjarra people to 180,000 square kilometres of land between the Great Victoria Desert and the Gibson Desert.3 The 20th anniversary of the presentation of the painting in October 2017 marked a milestone for Ngurrara people when the giant canvas returned to the edge of the Great Sandy Desert.

First Australian narrative and contemporary commemoration of petitions

The earlier petitions which initiated some of the claims to land rights and self-determination are widely celebrated in contemporary society. Visual statements of great consequence to First Australian political activism such as ‘Hereby Make Protest’4 represent an important celebration of First Australian-driven political achievement together with creative expression, which reflects political achievement and continued struggle. Contemporary petition-driven exhibitions highlight the national importance of First Australian political organisation. In 2007, in the state of Victoria, a major exhibition, ‘And Your Petitioners Humbly Pray: 150 Years of Petitions in Victoria’, reflects a range of social concerns through petitions.

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