ABSTRACT
In May 1994 Robert Tickner, the Australian Federal Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, used his powers under The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Act 1984 to place a ban on the building of a bridge over the Murray River between Goolwa and Hindmarsh Island in South Australia. The anthropologists, Ronald and Catherine Berndt, were told by the Ngarrindjeri that they regarded the River Murray as a kind of lifeline, a huge artery of a living body made up of the lakes and the bush of the southern plains. This chapter looks at a possible principle that might be supplied to resolve the dispute between the Ngarrindjeri and the developers namely, the suggestion that the dispute should be resolved in favour of the Ngarrindjeri women because building the bridge is contrary to their religion. The principle proposed is that some action X should be banned by law because it is contrary to the Ngarrindjeri religion.
