Terra Nullius Case Study

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Upon landing on the shores of Australia the British government declared “terra nullius” a Latin derived word meaning land belonging to known. After not recognising the aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders as human beings The Australian constitution did not recognise the aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders as people. They were considered to be flora and fauna and classed under “Australian wildlife” and therefore had no rights to citizenship nor counted in the national census. The 1950 assimilation policy meant that those Australian people who were with of mixed blood or of Aboriginal or Torres Strait blood were forcible removed from their homes and sent to live with white Europeans after the government agreeing that it was in the best interests of the children. These children are more commonly known as the stolen generation. Inspired by the recent events that were taking place in the United States …show more content…
However despite gaining national and international attention due the declaration of terra nullius by the British government the petition had to be dismissed. August of 1966 saw one of the most important aboriginal strikes that Australia has seen, when the entire population of workers decided to rise up again the lord Vestey after experiencing horrible working conditions and disrespectful treatment and decided to walk of the cattle station to wattie creek where they established a community called “Daguragu ”The 1950s a group of aboriginal workers who were employed in government department in Darwin went on strike for better work conditions although this was relatively small group due this this strike was deemed dramatically unsuccessful after two of the leaders of the strike were imprisoned. Although this strike was considered a failure it did provide inspiration for more strikes to