ABSTRACT

Australian Indigenous people have suffered many injustices over the past 220 years and at present seem to be regressing back to past policies and practices. This chapter will concentrate on Indigenous Australians and human rights approaches that have been applied up until now by various government bureaucracies. It has become the main aim of social justice initiatives to reverse the historical systematic abuse of Indigenous rights by past Australian governments. Issues such as the Stolen Generations and Native Title have received widespread coverage but, to date, have not been very successful in implementing policies, procedures and laws that protect Indigenous Australians.1