Land Back, a collection of essays edited by Gomeroi professor Heidi Norman, marks over 40 years of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983, New South Wales.

The act had a pervasive effect on daily living for Kooris in New South Wales. It established local Aboriginal land councils, setting out their constitutions, membership rules and functions. It established the rules relating to the authority, functions and powers of local land councils and their staff and leadership.

Land Back: Aboriginal Land Rights in New South Wales, Today and Always – edited by Heidi Norman (UNSW Press)

At Erambie Mission near Cowra, the act guided the community in creating and operating small businesses, a community housing company, and cultural organisations.

The Land Rights Act was created at a time when my community at Erambie was buzzing with ideas and disagreements about what to do in the economic and cultural fields. The community won some land back and people were politicking, managing, budgeting, employing, planning and making important decisions about the future.

This is why most families there kept a printed copy of the act. Some people even memorised every section of it. They recalled its statutes during internal community politics and when dealing with mainstream agencies.

It was impressive how some community members would quote from memory relevant sections of the act. The way they spoke about it, the act seemed to come to life in people’s minds as the arbiter of........

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