Native Title Act
Native Title is the legal recognition of the communal or group rights and interests which Aboriginal people have in land and water, where those Aboriginal People have continued to exercise their rights and interests in accordance with traditional law and custom since before sovereignty.
In order for claimant groups (traditional owners) to have their native title rights and interests recognised they must establish:
- That the claimant group have rights and interests that are possessed under traditional laws acknowledged, and traditional customs observed
- That the claimant group, by those laws and customs, have a connection with the land or water
- That those rights and interests are able to be recognised by Australian law.
The law requires that you use an objective test in your application to identify the members of your claim group. This is often done by naming the ancestors from which each member of your claim group descends.
The law also requires that your native title application is properly authorised by the Aboriginal People who have native title rights and interests in the land or water that are being claimed. Both the application being lodged and the Applicants nominated to represent the claimant group must be authorised by the group.
Decisions to authorise need to be made according to a traditional method of decision making if the traditional method is appropriate for decisions about a court application and other things relating to it. If there isn’t a traditional method of decision making or if it isn’t appropriate for use in a legal process, then the claimant group can adopt another method of decision making, such as discussion and voting.