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Sea Rights

Sea Rights Claims - Land Rights Claims - Native Title

Sea Rights

Sea Rights Not Addressed Pursuing Claims
Reaching Agreements

Some 87% of the Northern Territory coastline is Aboriginal-owned land.

Coastal or "Saltwater" Aboriginal people in the Top End of the Northern Territory have a strong attachment to "sea country". Connection to land does not stop at the water's edge. For saltwater people, the land and sea are one. There are sacred sites and dreaming tracks in and under the sea, just as there are on the land.

Sea Rights Not Addressed

The Aboriginal Land Rights Act does not address the issue of the rights to sea.

Similarly, in the High Court of Australia's Mabo decision on 3 June 1992, the judges said the Murray Islands in the Torres Strait were the traditional lands of the Indigenous Meriam people and they were entitled to possession and enjoyment of them - but the judgment did not make a ruling about native title over areas of sea. The subsequent 1993 Native Title Act also did not deal explicitly with the issue of native title over the seas.

However, Indigenous sea and fishing rights have been recognised in Canada, New Zealand, and the United States.

Pursuing Claims

Reaching Agreements

Aboriginal Rangers on Sea Patrol

While the Northern Land Council is pursuing land and native title rights of Aboriginal people over the sea through the court system, traditional owners have also used the land council to help them reach agreements with various commercial enterprises and recreational fishing interests. These agreements focus on various issues such as economic involvement of Aboriginal people and protection of endangered species.

See Doing Business on Aboriginal Land for more detail on these agreements.