Aboriginal heritage protection in Australia: trends and challenges

摘要

Legislation for the protection of Aboriginal cultural heritage is in a state of flux across Australian states and territories. Laws dating from the 1970s and 1980s have been undergoing a process of modernisation to reflect contemporary understandings of the nature and significance of cultural heritage. Aboriginal heritage is predominantly regulated at a state and territory level with umbrella federal legislation providing an additional level of protection.~1 Aboriginal heritage laws have developed in parallel to the federally regulated native title regime and recent developments in native title compensation may have flow-on effects for the regulation of Aboriginal heritage.