A Treaty Between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians

Past project

This project came to an end on 31 May 2005. It was funded by an Australian Research Council grant awarded to the Centre and its partners. The project was also supported by funding from the Myer Foundation, through a partnership with Reconciliation Australia.

Project Description

Australia is the only Commonwealth country that has not signed an official treaty with its Indigenous peoples. It is not surprising then that a treaty between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians has been cited as a goal of the reconciliation process by bodies including the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. Unfortunately, there has been little academic examination of the merits or content of a treaty, or of how a treaty might be accommodated within Australia's constitutional structure. With the benefit of comparative analysis, this project provided a scholarly investigation of the role that a treaty could play under Australian law.

As part of the Treaty Project the Centre co-hosted a national forum called Indigenous Health and the Treaty Debate: Rights, Governance & Responsibility. 

The Centre's Treaty project has published a series of Issues Papers dealing with important issues. For further reading on the Treaty Project, refer to Treaty Resources page.