Right now, courts across Australia are grappling with a difficult legal question. How do you put a dollar value on the cultural and spiritual harm done to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples when their Country has been damaged or taken away?

In February, the Federal Court awarded the Gudanji, Yanyuwa, and Yanyuwa-Marra Traditional Owners A$54 million for “intergenerational and enduring” cultural and spiritual loss caused by the expansion of the McArthur River Mine in the Northern Territory.

This was only the second compensation award for cultural loss made by federal courts in Australian history, following a landmark 2019 case.

There are still major Native Title rulings where compensation is yet to be decided. These include the Gumatj/Yunupingu case in the Northern Territory and the Yindjibarndi Ngurra claim in Western Australia. Both are widely regarded as major tests of how both economic and cultural loss are assessed.

But perhaps surprisingly, unlike economic damages, there is no formal valuation method for cultural loss. Our research aims to address this need.

‘There is no algorithm’

It’s been more than three decades since the landmark 1992 Mabo decision overturned the myth of terra nullius (land belonging to no one) and recognised that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have a legal claim to their traditional lands. This led to the establishment of the Native Title Act.

Since then, the legal system has largely been focused on........

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