Synopses & Reviews
Native title claims to Australian land are closely examined in this text. With professional contributions from lawyers, anthropologists, and historians, each sharing their experience and expertise, this explores the highly charged public controversy about who owns the land and how native title workers need to communicate more effectively and redefine their practice.
Synopsis
Ever since the 1992 Mabo decision put an end to the legal fiction that Australia was without owners before the arrival of the British colonisers, the work associated with resolving native title claims has developed as a significant but often difficult arena of professional practice. Increasingly, anthropologists, linguists, historians and lawyers have been encouraged to work collaboratively, often in the context of highly charged public controversy about who owns the land.
In Crossing Boundaries, editor Sandy Toussaint and her contributors have created a cross-disciplinary exploration of native title work. In all, twenty professionals share their experience and expertise. As Toussaint concludes, 'Chapters in this volume reveal the extent to which native title workers need to communicate more cogently and, in some cases, to redefine their practice.'
About the Author
Sandy Toussaint is the author of
Applied Anthropology in Australasia,
A Jury of Whose Peers?, and
Phyllis Kaberry and Me. She is a senior lecturer in anthropology at the University of Western Australia.