Crosscurrents

It is one thing to know what the law says: it is another to try to understand what it means and how it is applied. When Indigenous relationships with a country are viewed through the lens of a Western property rights regime, this complexity is seriously magnified.

Crosscurrents traces the path of a native title claim in the Kimberley region of Western Australia (Sampi v. State of Western Australia) from its inception to resolution, contextualizing the claim in the web of historical events that shaped the claim's beginnings, its intersection with evolving case law, and the labyrinth of legal process, evidence and argument that ultimately shaped its end.

Katie Glaskin examines native title law by tracing the development of a single claim, and, in doing so, makes this complex area of law more accessible to non-specialist readers. Also discussed is the interaction of Indigenous and Western systems of knowledge and governance. Policy-makers, native title lawyers, land councils, environmental groups, native title advocacy groups, anthropologists, historians, and scholars in the field will find this book of great interest.

The author has worked as an anthropologist on native title claims since 1994, and has published widely in the area of native title. In 2015, she won the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland's prestigious Curl essay prize. [Subject: Australian Studies, Indigenous Studies, Anthropology, Social Science, History, Legal History, Law]