Empire and the Making of Native Title: Sovereignty, Property and Indigenous People

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.

‘Empire and the Making of Native Title is a masterful account of the early colonisation of Australia and New Zealand that provides a clear, engaging, and persuasive explanation of why Britain treated the two places so differently.'

Stuart Banner - author of Possessing the Pacific

‘If you thought there was nothing more to say about the history of native title in Australia and New Zealand, think again. Bain Attwood's fascinating account is brimming with new insights about sovereignty, property, possession, protection, indigenous power, and imperial policy. An extraordinary achievement.'

Lauren Benton - author of A Search for Sovereignty

‘Attwood displays and advances all the best qualities of historians' post-millennial interest in law and political discourse inside the British Empire. Native title is the contested ground in the constitutional politics of the nineteenth century Australasian colonies, an irresolute discursive practice the inflections of which play out differently in their particular settings.'

P.G. McHugh - author of Aboriginal Title

'This probing work by one of Australia's most distinguished historians delivers a richly textured account of imperial claims in the Australasian colonies. Meticulously researched, it traces how British sovereignty in the settler world proceeded less from firm policy than from fluctuating circumstances that served to recognise or deny the existence of native title.'

Amanda Nettelbeck - author of Indigenous Rights and Colonial Subjecthood

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Empire and the Making of Native Title

Sovereignty, Property and Indigenous People

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Contents

Empire and the Making of Native Title
pp i-ii

Empire and the Making of Native Title - Title page
pp iii-iii

Copyright page
pp iv-iv

Dedication
pp v-vi

Contents
pp vii-vii

Acknowledgements
pp viii-ix

Abbreviations
pp x-x

Principal Players
pp xi-xiii

maps
pp xiv-xiv

Introduction
pp 1-13

1 - Claiming Possession in New Holland and New Zealand, 1770s–1820s
pp 14-42

2 - Batman’s Treaty and the Rise and Fall of Native Title, 1835–1836
pp 43-64

3 - The South Australian Colonisation Commission, the Colonial Office and Aboriginal Rights in Land, 1834–1837
pp 65-95

4 - Protection Claims and Sovereignty in the Islands of New Zealand, 1800–1839
pp 96-139

5 - Making Agreements and a Struggle for Authority, 1839–1840
pp 140-196

6 - The Land Claims Commission and the Return of the Treaty, 1840–1843
pp 197-242

7 - A Colony in Crisis and a Select Committee, 1843–1844
pp 243-300

8 - The Retreat of the Government and the Rise of the Treaty, 1844–1845
pp 301-339

9 - The Making of Native Title, 1845–1850
pp 340-400

Conclusion
pp 401-405

Appendix: The English Text of the Treaty of Waitangi
pp 406-407

Bibliography
pp 408-431

Index
pp 432-442

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Empire and the Making of Native Title

Sovereignty, Property and Indigenous People

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