SACE Stage 2 Aboriginal Studies key terms

The land, waters, skies and living things with which an Aboriginal nation holds enduring spiritual, kinship and custodial relationships; it carries law, identity and obligation rather than being merely real estate.

The foundational body of law, story, ceremony and spiritual knowledge describing ancestral creation beings and the ongoing order they established; it guides relationships, obligations and identity across time.

The inherited responsibility to care for Country, sites, species and knowledge on behalf of past and future generations; it is a duty owed to land and community, not ownership in a commercial sense.

A route across Country traced by ancestral beings in the Dreaming and remembered through song, story, dance and design; it links places, groups and law into a single navigable knowledge system.

Structured ritual activity that enacts and transmits law, kinship, healing or mourning; participation is often restricted by age, gender, initiation status or family permission.

A structured network of named relationships that assigns each person obligations, rights, marriage rules and appropriate behaviours toward others; it organises social life and access to knowledge.

A personal category within a kinship system, often one of a set of named subsections or sections, that determines marriageability, avoidance rules and expected behaviour between individuals.

The accepted rules governing behaviour, speech, images and knowledge sharing in a particular community, including who may speak, what may be recorded and how permission is obtained.

An approach in which services and research are delivered so that Aboriginal people's identity, knowledge and authority are respected, and power is shared rather than imposed by outsiders.

The right of Aboriginal peoples to decide their own political status and pursue cultural, social and economic development, exercised through their own representative and governing bodies.

The claim that Aboriginal nations never ceded their authority over Country; it underpins treaty debates and is distinct from land rights granted under Australian law.

The legal fiction that Australia was unoccupied land belonging to no one, used to deny Aboriginal law and ownership; it was overturned in the 1992 Mabo decision.

Rights recognised in Australian law over land and waters where Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people have maintained traditional laws and customs; it can coexist with, or be extinguished by, other interests.

The 1992 High Court ruling in Mabo v Queensland (No 2) that rejected terra nullius and recognised native title in Australian common law, prompting the Native Title Act 1993.

Statutory schemes, introduced from the 1960s onward, that grant or return land to Aboriginal groups, notably in the Northern Territory; they differ from court-recognised native title.

A negotiated agreement between a government and Aboriginal nations recognising rights, history and shared authority; Australian states have pursued treaties though there is no national one.

A 2017 statement issued after regional dialogues calling for a First Nations voice enshrined in the Constitution, a treaty process and a Makarrata commission for truth-telling and agreement-making.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people removed as children under government and church policies, whose separation from family, language and Country caused lasting harm documented in the 1997 Bringing Them Home report.

Government policy, dominant into the 1960s, expecting Aboriginal people to abandon language, culture and community and adopt non-Indigenous ways of living; it shaped child removal and missions.

Nineteenth and early twentieth century policies that placed Aboriginal people under government or church guardianship through reserves and missions, restricting movement, labour, marriage and cultural practice.

Sustained violence between Aboriginal nations and colonists as settlement expanded, including massacres, dispossession and resistance; it is central to accounts of colonisation on the Australian frontier.

The transmission of harm from events such as dispossession and child removal into later generations, affecting health, parenting and trust through both social conditions and family experience.

A national framework, agreed between governments and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peak bodies, setting measurable targets on health, education, employment, housing and justice with shared decision-making.

Purposeful, low-intensity fire applied under Aboriginal knowledge and authority to manage vegetation, reduce fuel loads, care for species and renew Country; increasingly used in land management partnerships.

Land and sea management work grounded in Aboriginal obligation and knowledge, including weed and feral animal control, fire management and monitoring, often delivered through Indigenous ranger programs.

The rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples over their knowledge, stories, designs, language, performances and heritage, including control over recording, reproduction and commercial use.

Use of another culture's knowledge, symbols or art by outsiders without permission or understanding, often for profit; in this context it removes authority from custodians and can breach protocol.

The principle, set out in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, that communities must be fully informed and agree before projects or research affecting them proceed.

A 2007 United Nations instrument affirming Indigenous peoples' rights to self-determination, culture, land, language and consent; Australia endorsed it in 2009.

The principle that Aboriginal organisations, not external agencies, govern and deliver services to their communities, with decision-making power and accountability held locally.

A primary health service governed by its local Aboriginal community, delivering culturally appropriate care and combining clinical treatment with community direction and advocacy.

An inquiry approach in which Aboriginal people set priorities, hold authority over knowledge and benefit from findings, with Country and community relationships treated as central rather than incidental.

Knowledge and testimony passed on through spoken accounts and memory; it is a valid and often primary source in Aboriginal studies, weighed alongside documents and archives.

Evidence created at the time or by participants, such as interviews, letters, photographs, recordings or official records; it is analysed for perspective, purpose and reliability.

An account that interprets or draws on primary evidence, such as histories, textbooks, documentaries or reports; it is evaluated for authorship, date, purpose and evidence base.

A systematic slant in a source or argument arising from the creator's position, interests or omissions; identifying it supports evaluation rather than automatic dismissal.

The extent to which a source can be trusted as evidence, judged by its origin, purpose, corroboration and the author's access to information, not simply by whether it is old.

Consistent acknowledgement of sources using an accepted style, allowing readers to locate evidence and showing that others' work and Aboriginal knowledge have been credited appropriately.