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Paper short abstract:

Native Title research ordinarily focuses the ethnographic eye firmly on Indigenous subjects. In this paper we make a case for broadening that ethnographic purview. Here we frame a determination of native title by the Federal Court of Australia as a rite of passage.

Paper long abstract:

Native Title is highly institutionalised in Australia. It is also highly symbolic. Key purposes of the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) are carried out by Representative Bodies (NTRB) who manage claimant groups and take charge of the legal process which takes their claim to a Determination by the Federal Court of Australia. When a claim is successful a Prescribed Body Corporate (PBC) comes into existence to hold the native title rights of the group.

Native Title research ordinarily focuses the ethnographic eye firmly on Indigenous subjects. In this paper we make a case for broadening that ethnographic purview. Here we frame a determination of native title by the Federal Court of Australia as a rite of passage. A ritualised sitting of the Court marks a critical transition of Indigenous people from native title claimants to common law right holders and their groups from native title claim groups to groups of native title holders. We suggest this passage is more impoverished than it might be. We argue that the work of native title anthropologists is left behind at the pivot of determination. In particular, we show that documents recording the cultural knowledge of claimants seldom make the transition with them and remain in the secured holdings of Representative Bodies.