Empire and the making of native title : sovereignty, property and Indigenous people / Bain Attwood.

Empire and the making of native title : sovereignty, property and Indigenous people / Bain Attwood.

1st edition

9781108478298 hardback

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2020.

©2020

English

xii, 442 pages ; 24 cm

N72.4.K3 ATT 2020

This book provides a new approach to the historical treatment of indigenous peoples' sovereignty and property rights in Australia and New Zealand. By shifting attention from the original European claims of possession to a comparison of the ways in which British players treated these matters later, Bain Attwood not only reveals some startling similarities between the Australian and New Zealand cases but revises the long-held explanations of the differences. He argues that the treatment of the sovereignty and property rights of First Nations was seldom determined by the workings of moral principle, legal doctrine, political thought or government policy. Instead, it was the highly particular historical circumstances in which the first encounters between natives and Europeans occurred and colonisation began that largely dictated whether treaties of cession were negotiated, just as a bitter political struggle determined the significance of the Treaty of Waitangi and ensured that native title was made in New Zealand. Sheds new light on the ways an imperial power treated the sovereignty and property rights of indigenous peoples. Pays careful attention to historical context and historical circumstances to reveal why native title was made in some colonies but not others. Challenges accounts that emphasise the importance of abstract norms by paying careful attention to legal politics at the centre of empire and forces on the ground. - Publisher's website.

Includes bibliographical references and index.