Walker v New South Wales [1994] HCA 64

Mr Walker had been charged with offences under the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) arising from an altercation on Bundjalung Country near Nimbin, on the far north coast of New South Wales. Before his trial began, he filed a claim in the High Court arguing that the common law and statutory laws do not apply to Aboriginal people without their consent. Mason CJ opined that Mr Walker’s claim amounted to the contention that a new source of sovereignty resided in Aboriginal people, a contention that had been rejected in Mabo. Mason CJ dismissed Walker’s claim. The rewritten judgment imagines an application for leave to appeal from Mason CJ’s dismissal of Walker’s claim. Through three different judges, it takes three approaches to Mr Walker’s claim, each emphasising a uniquely Indigenist judgment and jurisprudence.