Weisbrot, David --- "Book Review -- Aborigines and the Law: A Digest" [1987] AboriginalLawB 62; (1987) 1(29) Aboriginal Law Bulletin 15

• Book Review – Aborigines And The Law: A Digest

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Book Review –

Aborigines and the Law: A Digest

By John McCorquodale

Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra

1987. xvi, 512 pages. $44.95

This volume, recently published by the Aboriginal Studies Press (of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies in Canberra), represents ten years work on the part of the author, Dr John McCorquodale. Both the author and the publisher should be pleased, for Aborigines and the Law: A Digest is a triumph of scholarship and assiduosity.

After a compelling Foreword by Justice Michael Kirby, the book is divided into three main parts, and concludes with a well-designed index. Section A provides annotated citations of all legislation (Imperial, Commonwealth, State and Territory) which specifically refers to Aborigines. This includes the obvious statutes, such as the Pitjantjatjara Land Rights Act 1981 (SA), but also the less obvious. For example, the Vagrants, Gaming, and Other Offences Act 1931 (Qld) s.4(1)(ii) created a presumption that a person was a vagrant if "found lodging or wandering in company with any Aboriginal native".

Section B is an annotated bibliography which covers the many books, book reviews, articles, government (parliamentary and departmental) reports, commission of inquiry reports, and theses dealing with matters of Aborigines and the law. Here McCorquodale's digging pays off in unpublished mimeos, undergraduate theses, seminar papers and letters which otherwise might have been lost to most researchers. Section C digests over 500 relevant cases, mainly from the High Court and the various state and territory Supreme Courts, but also from some lower or other (such as industrial) courts.

Aborigines and the Law is, and is intended to be, a reference book. However, I found myself spending a surprising amount of time simply skimming through the many citations and annotations which combine to form a veritable catalogue of injustices. Discussing pre-independence of Papua New Guinea, Professor Peter Fitzpatrick once described law as "the cutting edge of colonialism". Here, too, we see the centrality of the law-European law and institutions-to Aboriginal oppression: the denial of land rights, the failure to recognise customary law, the construction of Aboriginal crime (and with it the incredible rates of imprisonment and the tragic deaths in custody), and the de-construction of the Aboriginal family, among other things.

McCorquodale displays a light hand with the annotations, taking the opportunity to compare similar works and to mildly editorialise. For example, he takes issue with one well-known writer's choice of words that Aborigines "be 'permitted' (sic) to organise themselves for effective social action in their own way"; he describes one law review article on Commonwealth legislative authority over Aborigines as a "not very profound examination"; and comments simply on an honours theses that "Inglis says it better." McCorquodale also provides some neat reverse-citations; for example, the book on Australian mining and petroleum law which deals "briefly with Aborigines, not at all with land rights except as conferred by statute."

The superior layout of the book also encourages such browsing. A volume of this type could easily have finished up looking like a telephone book, but this one does not. The pages are clear and attractively set out. Aboriginal Studies Press deserves credit for putting out a book which mainstream publishers might find "uncommercial", and for doing it so well. The cost is relatively high for a paperback, but it is worth it.

From now on, the commencement of research into matters of Aborigines and the law will have two essential steps. First, consult McCorquodale's digest. Second, write McCorquodale a thank-you letter.