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We are our land on which we walk
Title : We are our land on which we walk We are our land on which we walk
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Creator : Students Association and Union of Flinders University
Place Of Creation : [Adelaide]
Date of creation : 1984
Format : Poster
Dimensions : 510 x 600 mm
Contributor : State Library catalogue
Catalogue record
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Copyright : This item is reproduced courtesy of Flinders Campus Community Services. It may be printed or saved for research or study. Use for any other purpose requires written permission from Flinders Campus Community Services and the State Library of South Australia. To request approval, complete the Permission to publish form.
Description :

South Australia was the first state in Australia to enact Aboriginal land rights legislation, with the PitjantjatjaraLand Rights Act of 1981 transferring title to lands in north-west South Australia to the Anangu Pitjantjatjara.

In January 1985, the Maralinga Tjarutja land was handed back to the Maralinga people following the enactment of the Maralinga Tjarutja Land Rights Act 1984. This Act granted freehold title to an area of about 81,373 square kilometres (or about 7.7 percent of the state of South Australia) to Maralinga Tjarutja, a corporate body established under the Act, of which all traditional owners are members.

From 1956 to 1963 the British conducted nuclear tests at Maralinga, in outback north-west South Australia, on the edge of the Great Victoria Desert and the Nullarbor Plain. To gain control of the selected test site, British and Australian governments confiscated the lands of the Maralinga Tjarutja people, relocating many community members to other areas. Local Maralinga people were not warned effectively of the explosions, and those who remained in the lands suffered terrible after-effects from fallout.

An Australian government Royal Commission was set up in 1984 to inquire into the safety standards observed during the nuclear trials. Various clean-up operations were conducted in years following the tests, with controversy regarding the effectiveness of the process.

The Maralinga people resettled on the land from 1995, naming the new community Oak Valley Community.

Subjects
Period : 1980-2000
Place : Maralinga (S. Aust.)
Internet links :
Agreements, Treaties and Negotiated Settlements (ATNS) project See: Legislation: MaralingaTjarutja LandRights Act 1984; and Organisation: Maralinga Tjarutja Council

AIATSIS Native Title Resource Guide See: South Australia

Australasian Legal Information Institute See: South Australian Consolidated Acts MARALINGATJARUTJA LANDRIGHTS ACT 1984

British nuclear tests at Maralinga [National Archives of Australia: Factsheet 129]

PIRSA Petroleum -Access to Land - Aboriginal issues


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