Last Updated on March 18, 2025
Emplacement, and the intimate and enduring relationship between people and place, is essential to Indigenous traditions of thought and ways of being in the world. In Australia as well as throughout the world, the relationship between Indigenous peoples and Country is a foundational aspect of law, cultural practice, ceremony and history, as well as philosophical and epistemological concepts expressed through language and place. Disconnection from land, then, through dispossession or impairment of enjoyment is more than merely a transfer of property or economic deprivation.
As a non-Indigenous person trained in the western traditions of legal and political thought, I often think and write about the duality of measures of ‘justice’ as at once colonising and decolonising – as both empowering and disempowering; and of the failure of imagination in adapting western traditions to better understand our relationship with place in order to respectfully engage with Indigenous peoples on more than a legal and economic plane.[2]
When I think about the cost and what is gained by land claims and settlement processes, it is easy to question the validity of my own contribution to making these systems work. But then, I reflect back to the driving force that spurs communities to assert their right and responsibility to speak for Country. And I look to the genuine pride and relief that is so often expressed by those who successfully navigate the difficult legal and political battles that accompany the assertion of rights of Country.
My friend and colleague, Quandamooka leader and historian Dr Valerie Cooms has spoken of the strength of the Quandamooka spirit, which has been invigorated and reinforced as a direct consequence of the successful native title claim over their traditional Island home, Minjerribah, which we also know as North Stradbroke Island.
Quandamooka Country extends beyond Minjerrabah itself, and comprises the waters and lands of Moorgumpin (Moreton Island), the Southern Moreton Bay and Stradbroke Islands. It includes the mainland from the mouth of the Brisbane River to the Logan River on the coast of what is now known as south-east Queensland.
Since very early in Queensland’s colonial history North Stradbroke Island has been a playground for Brisbane holidaymakers who take advantage of the world-renowned north facing white sand surf beaches. The arrival by ferry in the middle of the local Quandamooka community and perhaps without ever knowing it, the visitors head to the exclusive beachfront settlements. They are ignorant of the blood of the dolphin spirit that washes the rocks of the shore next to the ferry terminal; they do not acknowledge the ancestors whose spirits live in the trees surrounding them or the spiritual significance of the sand and sea. And they do not acknowledge the Quandamooka people on whose land they have established their occasional homes.
Asserting rights to Quandamooka country through the native title system was costly, both in financial terms and in the trauma that the application process creates for the community. So why go through it? For many Indigenous peoples there is no choice but to take the courses of action that best enable them to give some measure of protection to their traditional country and to achieve the recognition and survival of their people.
I recently had the opportunity to visit Valerie on her Country and the visibility of the Quandamooka people on the Island was palpable. Unmistakable signs declared these lands as Quandamooka Aboriginal land and the branding of the traditional owner corporation ‘the Spirit of Quandamooka’ was everywhere. This visibility is deliberate and meaningful, as Valerie explains:
I expect to see children growing up with the expectation that native title is there. My granddaughter … was born into knowing that this is our [native title organisation]. …She’ll be able to drive around Stradbroke Island as a young child and see this is Quandamooka Aboriginal land, a sign that was never there. My mother never got to see it, my grandfather didn’t get to see it, my older brother didn’t get to see it but I did and my grandkids will and my children will. There are big green signs on the island and it doesn’t matter how many times you drive past it, every time you see it you realise, and then the tourists will see it and the visitors will see it and that’s our brand. That’s always good to see.
As family Elder and Chair of the native title organisation, Valerie, more than most, confronts the recalcitrance and colonising imperative of governments in the continued breaches of agreements and resistance to change. But now the Quandamooka people engage in this relationship from a position of greater influence. Visitors are now yura, welcome.
Importantly, the Quandamooka people have the breathing space to turn their energy away from those conflictual engagements and instead expend and gain energy from positive engagement with Country.
The native title settlement has given the Quandamooka Elders the opportunity to provide every young Quandamooka person the opportunity (and concomitant responsibility) to work on Country and represent the Spirit of Quandamooka. The Elders have also had an opportunity to re-frame the ‘atlas’ of the Island, ascribing the cultural values that need to be taken into account in land use planning and development decisions.
The ‘re-presencing’ of Indigenous peoples in their territories (that is, both physical and philosophical reoccupation) has provided a more effective remedy to dispossession and colonisation than perhaps could have been predicted.
Re-presencing in this sense is not just place names (although all cultures know that there is power in the true names of places), it is about changing the way the landscape is understood, its about how, and by whom, decisions are made about access and use of lands, about how ‘sustainable development’ is defined and to whom benefits accrue. It extends to what is taught in schools on country, what history is told and what laws are respected.
In the end re-presencing is about how the people stand in the land and feel in their skin, everyday. For Indigenous peoples, this is knowing that responsibilities have been met and relationships to Country are restored. For non-Indigenous peoples it may well be a level of discomfort and reorientation, both in their relationship with the ecosystems that they inhabit, and to the authority of Indigenous voices speaking for Country.
It will be some time before the community of Stradbroke Island and the Queensland Government adjusts to the Quandamooka people being the largest landowners on the Island, the largest commercial operation as well as equal partners in environmental management. Too often agreements are reached only to confront the response – ‘but we didn’t know that we would be expected to change the way we do things’!
For many colonising peoples, there is a genuine desire to find a sense of justice and legitimacy in our relationships with Indigenous peoples but there is an abject failure to adjust our habits of thought about relationships to Country. Legal rights and economic settlements, however imperfect, provide a layer of protection against the impetus to colonise that is innate in our institutions and ideologies.
My interest and responsibility is to be vigilant and aware of the need to maximise the capability of my own institutions of law and politics to be decolonising and empowering, wherever possible. There is potential in these moments to create space for Indigenous peoples to breathe and to reconnect without the assault of colonising institutions and forces – to be free to choose and to develop in ways that retain the connection to land and the obligations of law, to engage in everyday acts of cultural resurgence and enliven the spirit.
[1] This paper as authored in consultation with Dr Valerie Cooms, Quandamooka Elder and Chair of the Quandamooka Yoolooburrabee Aboriginal Corporation (QYAC). I would like to express my thanks to Val and to QYAC for sharing their story and important cultural information with me and allowing me to share it more broadly.
[2] See, for example, Strelein, L and Tran T, 2013 ‘Building Indigenous Governance from Native Title: Moving away from ‘Fitting in’ to Creating a Decolonised Space’ 18(1) Review of Constitutional Studies 19-47.
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