'The possibility of a new beginning was central to celebrations of the advent
of native title in Australia. A re-imagined history of white invasion
and settlement could, as then Prime Minister Paul Keating proclaimed,
provide the possibility for a new foundation “because after 200 years, we
will at last be building on the truth.” This “truth” was embodied in the
recognition of the presence of Indigenous communities, their laws, and
their dispossession. Unlike such British colonies as India or Nigeria, the
colonization of Australia proceeded on the basis that there were no Indigenous
people who held property rights and who therefore had any entitlement
to remain on the land or to govern. This is central to the logic of
settler colonialism, which erases the traces of Indigeneity such that settlers
replace Indigenous peoples, sovereignties, and communities on the land.
This logic has been reflected in Australian jurisprudence around settlement,
the origins of property, and the reception of British law.'
