ABSTRACT
Anthropology is not the only Western tradition that has attempted to translate Australian indigenous culture. A legal translation of indigenous discourse is embodied in the Northern Territory’s Land Rights Act of 1976. The ability of claimants to match the legal criteria during hearings is tested according to methods and criteria of proof that are alien not only to the claimants, but also to anthropologists (Bern and Labalestier 1985; Hiatt 1984; Layton 1983, 1995). In the course of a land claim, the anthropologist as ‘expert witness’ (see Okely, Chapter 14 of this volume) must juggle with alternative representations (indigenous and Western) and different translations of indigenous representations (anthropological and legal), in a way which makes the relativity of each representation apparent.
