ABSTRACT
Today aboriginal people have regained legally recognised title to large areas of country which has made them major land-holders in remote parts of Canada and Australia. Land-based economic activity is particularly important to them—it not only provides them with much of their living, but it is also the prime means through which they express their interdependence with the land. Moreover the land rights movements have not only been politically significant but they have also forced aboriginal people to change their lives more rapidly since the 1970s than in any previous period. Yet governments continue to undervalue the contribution made to human support by these land-based activities. This is partly because much of it is still largely traditional in nature.
