Indigenous Australians: Greater Disadvantage Than Any Other Racial Community

TAt the time of Federation, Indigenous Australians suffered greater disadvantage than any other racial community. They were considered the most inferior of all non-white races and continued to be actively discriminated against. This was not a new practice. The British colonisation of Australia had always failed to recognise Indigenous occupation of the land or sovereignty over it. In 1770 by claiming sovereignty for England, Captain James Cook also claimed the land as terra nullius, “no-man’s land” “A land where there is no sovereign law (law, social order) and a land where there is no recognisable tenure in land” (Terra Nullius, the High Court, and Surveyors). In 1788 the First Fleet arrived in Sydney Cove. The raising of the British flag