ABSTRACT
This chapter is confined to mean the official 'Indigenous leadership' in the context of native title. In the politics of native title, the locus of Indigenous power proved elusive and contextual, and the omnipresent question of 'who speaks for the blacks' was incapable of an unconditional answer. Tensions between different kinds of Aboriginal representation are an enduring theme in Indigenous affairs in Australia. The political reality, though, was that native title did not impact upon all Aboriginal people the same way. Further, the rationales for native title that were provided by the Indigenous leadership were both changeable and inconsistent. In any event it is open to debate as to how much any of these results can be ascribed to the doings of the Indigenous leadership given their lack of power and limitations on action. Whatever dexterity of stratagem or sheer tenacity might have been exhibited, inherent structural weaknesses imposed deep-seated restrictions on what was possible.
