From Envirowiki

Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976

The Aboriginal Land rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 was the result of a long struggle by Indigenous Australians to reclaim their land. Land rights are a grant of interest in land in accordance with statutory law. The legislation aims to redress the dispossession and removal of Indigenous people from their land. The Land rights act is different to the Native Title act 1993 in that it does not require proof of preexisting ownership of land, continued connection to land and continued practice of traditional law and customs in order to be applicable to make a land claim. Land claimed under Land Rights legislation is held in communal title and is administered by a Local Aboriginal Land Council.

[edit] history

some events which preceded and catalysed the Aboriginal Land rights (Northern Territory) act 1976 are:

• 1946 Aboriginal stockmen’s strike
• Pitjantjatjara Lands Act 1956
• 1963 Yolngu people from NE Arnhem land responded to the federal government taking land for mining by sending a bark petition to parliament demanding respect for their land rights.
• 1966 Gurindji people at Wave Hill station went on strike.
• 1971 Gove land rights case