Oxford LibGuides: Indigenous Peoples: legal resources: Australia

First Australians

Legislation, reform, policy statements and background

Australian legislation both Federal and State (eg Victoria's Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006) is available on the free web, The first group of links below are available to holders of an Oxford SSO. They are sources of law reports and commentary.

Westlaw AU
Requires Oxford SSO. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples is volume one of the Laws of Australia avialable via this database

Alternative names: Australian Law Resources Online ; Legal Online ; West Law AU

Australian Legal Database containing many law reports, journals, legislation, case digests and citators, encyclopaedias and commentary including the Laws of Australia.

Australian Indigenous Law Reporter 1-20 (1996-2006) Australian Indigenous Law Review (2006-2017)
Holders of an Oxford SSO can access this journal via HeinOnline under its two successive titles.

Some useful sites on the free web, available to all

Key case is Mabo v Queensland (No 2) (1992) 175 CLR 1 Below is link to Australian Law Commission on the case

The framework: Mabo [No 2]
Officilal website. Section of Connection to Country: Review of the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) (ALRC Report 126), 2015
Love v Cth of Australia: Judgment Summary on HCA website
Love v Cth of Australia:Judgment on HCA website
Love v Cth of Australia: Court Filings
Aboriginal Australians born overseas cannot be deported, court rules
BBC comment on case
AustLII's Australian Indigenous Law Library
Free resource.
Australia: Indigenous People of
IWGIA overview
Australian Human Rights Commission: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
Official government website.
Australian Journal of Human Rights
Free resource Issues 1994 - 2010
Connection to Country: Review of the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth)
Official website ALRC Report 126)
Council of Australian Governments (COAG)
Official government website. See link at the bottom of the home page to the Closing the Gap project.
Land Councils (Australia)
Government website. Links through to individual websites of four main land councils.
National Indigenous Reform Agreement (2020) (Australia)
Official website
Project 94 - Aboriginal Customary Laws (Australia)
Recognition of Aboriginal Customary Laws (ALRC Report 31)
Report on Sentencing Aboriginal Offenders (NSW, Australia)
Official website of Law Reform Commission of NSW Report No. 96 (2000)
Stolen Generation Testimonies (Australia)
Free resource. Interesting and insightful website with stories of stolen generation Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders.
Trove: First Australians
Trove is maintained by the National Library of Australia. Search for digital copies of newspapers, Government Gazettes, maps, magazines and newsletters. Or books, pictures, photographs, archived websites, music and interviews. Even information about famous Australians, including copies of letters, diaries and personal archives.

Related Commentary

Decolonising Indigenous water ‘rights’ in Australia: flow, difference, and the limits of law
Remote access requires Oxford SSO. Article by Peter Burdon, Georgina Drew, Matthew Stubbs, Adam Webster & Marcus Barber in (2015) 5 Settler Colonial Studies 334
Aboriginal History Journal
Open Access an annual journal published by ANU Press. "interdisciplinary historical studies of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ interactions with non-Indigenous peoples. It promotes publication of Indigenous oral traditions, biographies, languages, archival and bibliographic guides, previously unpublished manuscript accounts, critiques of current events, and research and reviews in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, sociology, linguistics, demography, law, geography and cultural, political and economic history"

Oxford International Encyclopedia of Legal History

Alternative name: OIELH

The Oxford International Encyclopedia of Legal History is the online version of the Oxford International Encyclopedia of Legal History (edited by S.N. Katz et al) published by OUP in 2009.
Informit Indigenous Collection

The Informit Indigenous Collection covers a range of subjects within an indigenous context. The primary focus is material from and about the Asia Pacific region. The full text Collection contains journals, books, conference proceedings and reports. Subjects include: anthropology, Cultural studies, History, Human geography, Law and land rights, (Post) colonial studies, Race studies, and Visual and performing arts.

Please ask a member of staff for directions as books are likely to be in at least 3 different sections of the LawBod - and potentially on all four floors of the library!

Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander legal relations by Behrendt, Larissa, and others authors.
Call Number: KM208.431.A8.BEH 2019
ISBN: 9780190310035
Publication Date: 2nd edn 2019
Aboriginal Peoples, Colonialism and International Law by Irene Watson
Call Number: Holders of an Oxford SSO can read this online via title link.
ISBN: 9780415721752
Publication Date: 2014-10-29
An examination of the Australian experience
Compromised Jurisprudence: native title cases since Mabo by Lisa Strelein
Call Number: Holders of an Oxford SSO can read this online via title link.
ISBN: 9780855756635
Publication Date: 2010
The Land Is Our History : indigeneity, law, and the settler state by Miranda C. L. Johnson
Call Number: Holders of an Oxford SSO can read this online via title link.
ISBN: 0190600063
Publication Date: 2016
Print copy is at KM208.431.A8.JOH 2016