ABSTRACT
In the Lakefield and Cliff Islands Land Claim, a now deceased Elder, Mr. Jack Harrigan, when asked about the possibility of an enemy asking his permission to enter his country, replied: ‘Only friends ask; enemies never ask’.1 This chapter presents a discussion of Aboriginal property relations based on the preparation and evidence of Aboriginal claimants from the Princess Charlotte Bay region of eastern Cape York in northern Australia in 1993 and 1994 (Aboriginal Land Tribunal 1994).2 It examines the claimants’ ideas and construction of those social relations in land and waters that are conventionally labelled as property relations. Property relations are found to be embedded in the texture of other social relations, and, as many anthropologists have explained with regard to Aboriginal Australia, understanding Aboriginal tenure comes, at least in part, from an appreciation of the sacred aspects of spiritual geography.
