Traditional Aboriginal Lands

[Nick Skelton]

I was trying to find GIS data so I can automatically and correctly acknowledge the traditional aboriginal custodians of location such as language groups or clans

It turned out to not be straight forward, so I thought I would share. 

You will not find a detailed data boundaries are often universally agreed and it may change regularly and may have overlaps at several scales. Most detailed information has been lost. 

 The best nation wide  map I can find is 

https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/map-indigenous-australia

AIATSIS will not supply GIS files but you can buy a map of Australia for $10

If you dig a bit deeper and ask local land council and libraries you may get a bit more detail but be wary of its accuracy. 

It may be best in many circumstances where ownership boundaries are not well known 

to acknowledge that the clan boundaries are no longer known due to death or displacement of the traditional owners and the loss of knowledge. 

The Legal administrative Aboriginal land council areas which is the modern legal areas are available at https://portal.spatial.nsw.gov.au/portal/home/item.html?id=8b4a0762283b458187c4960e771d8ef2

Nick

[S Kolo]

Thanks Nick,

Some nice research there. I totally agree that it would be great to have a finer level indication of First Nations clan areas. I have seen some Australia wide maps in the past. I guess that converting this to an absolute on-ground “boundary” is where the arguments/debate starts and clarification is required. Those who ultimately have the bulk of the traditional knowledge may have long since passed. 

We rely on NNTT at work, and while it’s not as precise as defining finer scale language or clan areas it does help us in some respect. I wonder whether claim areas could be a kind or surrogate in this ?

https://nntt.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=2698667a86e54550b732174a71c3bc57

It’s a simple exercise to add the ArcGIS rest services from NNTT into QGIS (and like QLD spatial portal data also the NSW spatial portal data)

Cheers,

Shaun

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "QGIS Australia User Group" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to australian-qgis-use...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/australian-qgis-user-group/c50c3513-3e15-4ad2-9777-a9e4680041d1n%40googlegroups.com.

[John Bryant]

Hi Nick, you might find this resource interesting: https://native-land.ca/

It's an interactive web map and API for First Nation territories around the world. I believe the AIATSIS map is one of the key sources for territories in Australia.

Cheers!

John

p.s. thanks Shaun for the NNTT rest API link!

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/australian-qgis-user-group/CAFdWxpWo-wrf_oiO9iaAjP0aHygceGXaWgbujc%3DF0VhT68wQdw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Rae Allen]

I noticed the ABC has this mapping done . You can see it when you set your location on their site.

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/australian-qgis-user-group/CAFdWxpWo-wrf_oiO9iaAjP0aHygceGXaWgbujc%3DF0VhT68wQdw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Luke Kirkwood]

/flex, finally a topic I can talk to

The simple answer is there is no map to be able to acknowledge the traditional aboriginal custodians of a location. The reasons for this are many:

1. Many of the maps of traditional language boundaries were made in the 20th century and rely on previously published information from white researchers who in turn got their information from either white settlers/informants and Aboriginal informants who may or may not have been from the group being mapped.
2. Dispossession, illness and frontier wars have drastically changed the boundaries of many Aboriginal groups (particularly on the east coast) to the point that they do not reflect the pre-Captain Cook era
3. There is limited agreement on cultural boundaries amongst some Aboriginal communities, we see this commonly in buffer boundaries such as both sides of a river bank where Aboriginal groups will share cultural management of an area
4. Native Title claims are not universally agreed (amongst classic example of this was the claim of the Eyre Peninsula near Port Augusta by the Barngarla, Nukunu and Kokatha peoples). Much of this stems from shared lineage where intermarriage amongst groups and the lessened importance of kinship cultural regulation has blurred traditional boundaries

So instead we have to explore other ways to explore this information.

Language Groups

The least political approach is to map the language group (which is separate from the current political groupings), but this is for many reasons difficult (if interested please read this article which explains some of the challenges which this approach https://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p73361/pdf/ch0648.pdf)

One of the first attempts in the modern era at this was Norman Tindale in the 1940s

https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/items/6959a2f6-0957-4ffa-947b-6576ad2c5438

Tindal would late refine this at the end of his career result in his monumental report Aboriginal tribes of Australia : their terrain, environmental controls, distribution, limits, proper names (1974). This is recognised as a seminal document, but it is not without its flaws. In general the names and boundaries are mostly correct, but dig a little deeper and you can see groups which have no right to claim certain areas, naming that is the name given by a neighbouring tribe and not their original name, boundaries that are best guesses.

The map is split into four pages

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/DetailsReports/PhotoDetail.aspx?Barcode=9058051

https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/239988345?keyword=Aboriginal%20tribes%20of%20Australia

https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/239988765?keyword=Aboriginal%20tribes%20of%20Australia

https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/239988042?keyword=Aboriginal%20tribes%20of%20Australia

https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/239988063?keyword=Aboriginal%20tribes%20of%20Australia

O’Grady et al would also have a crack at it in 1966

https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/items/0471c17f-691a-4dd3-93b9-2e8481e92659

And lastly David Horton is one of the more recent attempts in 1996. This is a commercial product of AIATSIS but if you google enough you can find a high resolution version

https://aiatsis.gov.au/collections/item/a474097

Disclaimer: 

1. All of these maps are best guesses and there are some Aboriginal groups who are deeply offended that their territory is not mapped correctly as they know it to be from information passed down by their elders. When using these maps we always make sure to make it clear that this is Tindale’s or Horton’s interpretation, not the Aboriginal communities interpretation which is also not static over time (boundaries thought to be rock solid in the 1970s may change as new information comes to light or memories fade)
2. None of these maps have been made with any level of cartographic accuracy. They are best guesses on paper maps at scale where errors of millimetres can lead to errors of tens to hundreds kilometres on the ground.
3. There are instances where language groups and tribal/clan groups are intertwined and sometimes mapped incorrectly. The Wiradjuri (one of the largest land areas of language affinity), was in fact several smaller political/cultural units. Think of it like 15th century Germany with a number of different polities but a shared culture/identity and mostly shared language, but each group would see themselves distinct from the other.

Native Title

The next best approach is Native Title, but here too there can be issues. Native Title is essentially a three stage process and I am oversimplifying here for the sake of brevity:

1. Registration - An Aboriginal organisation registers their claim with the Native Title Tribunal and it is considered for initial merit
2. Claim - The Application is registered and can now go through the process of legal determination by the courts
3. Determination - A claim is accepted or rejected

Now even here you might find that the entire area which a group could claim for is not claimed for for strategic reasons. So for example: Gamilaroi (green) have claimed all of their land, but the Bigambul (orange) next door have claimed a series of slivers within their traditional land as these present the least initial potential objections from wealthy land owners to their native title claim, but of course their traditional lands extend to the green.

The only one that matters for legal land tenure and thus recognition of traditional boundaries is the Determined category - this group has legal authority as the Traditional Owners/Custodians of a place. 

So the page to keep bookmarked is

https://www.nntt.gov.au/assistance/Geospatial/Pages/Spatial-aata.aspx

Here you can download spatial data or more importantly hook into the rest servers for accurate up to date information, but even here we can catch a break because of all the confusing layers

The ones that are important:

1. Determinations - two layers - one showing all the determined outcomes (this parcel of land has native title or not - only for successful claims not claims that have made it to determination and been rejected outright) and the other showing just the determinations that have been finalised or not finalised. This layer can include claims which have been rejected.
2. Register of Native Title Claims - all current claims
3. Schedule of Native Title Determination Application - all current claims - this includes claims accepted for registration and those claims which were not accepted but the group still intends to reapply.

So what does this all mean. Well the only one that truly matters for determining who can speak for country is the Determined Outcomes layer as these group have had their native title determined. But there are caveats as we will see with the Qld heritage system.

NSW - Local Aboriginal Land Councils

So prior to Native Title being established, a few states but now mostly NSW established Aboriginal Land Councils to assist with management and support of local Aboriginal issues. These Councils were originally quite important, but now play a partnership role with Native Title and other heritage claimant groups. 

https://portal.spatial.nsw.gov.au/server/rest/services/NSW_Administrative_Boundaries_Theme/FeatureServer/

Heritage

Other states have opted for registered Aboriginal Parties that support the heritage assessment system (groups that are consulted when there are potential impacts to Aboriginal heritage). Victoria implemented this system because native title is so difficult to achieve in that state due to historical dispossession. These groups are appointed by an Aboriginal Heritage Council who review their claim much like a Native Title claim. Again these boundaries may be cultural, but they may also be pragmatic with boundaries following council boundaries, property lots etc.

https://discover.data.vic.gov.au/dataset/registered-aboriginal-parties-rap-appointed-boundaries

Qld also have a similar system, but this is based on last man standing under the Native Title System - whoever last claimed a particular piece of land is the Aboriginal Party. Where this falls down is when a claim has been rejected or withdrawn and someone has an overlapping claim but for a multitude of reasons doesn’t claim the same parcels of land. So for example, you can have sections of Broadbeach on the Gold Coast where individual parcels of land are the mapped for different groups due to legacy claims (green = new claim, purple = old claim - different groups and names). In this instance, say you wanted to put in a new water main, every time you cross that boundary you need to talk to a different group.

https://www.data.qld.gov.au/dataset/cultural-heritage-party-boundaries-queensland

Other states have similar systems, but these are usually strongly wedded to the Native Title system where many communities still retain readily established connection to country under the strict provisions of the Native Title Act. (WA, SA, NT)

So this long email is all to say that it is difficult. So in summary:

1) Use Tindal and Horton initially and when referencing this information state that ’Tindale mapped this as the traditional lands of X and Horton as the traditional lands of Y’

2) Then use Native Title determined outcomes as this is the legally recognised entity - 'under native title this is recognised as the traditional lands of X'

3) Then use a mix of the Native Title claims and state based groups and clarify where this information comes from - The Iman People are recognised as an Aboriginal Party by the Queensland Government for this area’

Another tool in our toolkits is to reach out to local council or your State based First Nations relations Department. They typically will have a more nuanced local political understanding of who they currently recognise as the traditional owners/custodians of an area. Plus you can always blame them for it when someone raises an issue.

Lastly, bring on the proposed National Reforms to simplify this mess.

https://antar.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/First-Nations-Cultural-Heritage-Protection-Reform.pdf

Hope this helps and hasn’t confused too much. Iain Stuart, please correct anything I may have oversimplified.

Luke Kirkwood

Heritage Specialist

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/australian-qgis-user-group/CALDaq5JTETCq3vLqrYC6Ac-vOt%2Bz9bgjvP0HpV4wnSz_wHCeRg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Rae Allen]

Great explanation. I noticed when setting my location on the ABC you often get more than one indigenous country. They don't explain how they have built their dataset but their explanation is:

Indigenous Land Names 

Around the country, the ABC aims to support Indigenous Australians and their culture. Demonstrated through our Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP), the ABC champions initiatives that recognise and embrace Australia's Indigenous history and cultural heritage. The ABC operates all over Australia and is therefore also committed to celebrating and recognising regional and local communities by creating digital experiences and content that are relevant to them.

Once you input your postcode you will see the Indigenous land name associated with your postcode.

The ABC will manage the dataset of Indigenous land names; however, it does not own or hold the knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander locations.

Please note that it is not intended for use in native land claims.

In some instances, your location may show more than one Indigenous land name. This could be due to many factors but is usually because your postcode covers a wide geographical location. We endeavour to ensure the Indigenous land names and locations are as accurate as possible.

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/australian-qgis-user-group/52CF4BA6-9E30-42E1-8529-256DE1FA910F%40gmail.com.

[Adam Steer]

Hi all

As a Victoria-specific addition there are boundaries for representative groups (Registered Aboriginal Parties).

See: https://www.firstpeoplesrelations.vic.gov.au/

..and maps/data here: https://achris.vic.gov.au/weave/wca.html 

Why is not all Victoria covered? Best to contact First Peoples - State Relations if you have specific questions. 

Hope that helps!

Adam 

[Emma Hain]

HI All

Thanks to Luke and everyone for the resources.

2 things -

Mapping:

I came up with this issue back in primary school, when with an Indigenous teacher, we were looking to create a puzzle for the Montessori classes as a teaching aid. In discussion, we just realised that it was a western perspective, and that boundaries were more nuanced and we didn't have the support of AIATSIS

Acknowledgement:

I gave a talk the other day, and in it, this was my acknowledgement to the indigenous peoples as I believe our actions as mappers impact many people across the land:

" I acknowledge the first peoples of this land we call Australia - the first mappers. I express my sorrow as a descendant of settlers. I offer my services in any remediation activities."

I actually wanted to say " I express my sorrow as a descendant of settlers and colonialists." but I cannot pronounce the word "colonalists" so I am going to swap it to colonizers as I don't think settler does enough justice to the damage done. Going back to the 12thC, my paternal ancestors were Colonizers, and they were that on my maternal side in Aus.

In thinking about this, I think I should also put in the local group. I think this is something that should be deeply personal and not be done as part of process. It is something that must be felt in your heart.

Not sure if this helps, and keen to hear what you think.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "QGIS Australia User Group" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to australian-qgis-use...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/australian-qgis-user-group/CAFORoyguUH-hx_gQ2xQYphoQjuopDaSmk8H%3DE5hVQ3rz7aFH0g%40mail.gmail.com.

[Juan Fernando Berrío]

Hello Luke, Emma and others, 

Thanks so much for your detailed yet clear explanation - it's very enlightening.  

It's helped me untangling issues I've encountered before. 

Cheers,

Juan

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/australian-qgis-user-group/CAKjVMPwo33MYeCVZ1ws3RF0hjU2QhptzvkNxiT2fO_Fq8E2M-Q%40mail.gmail.com.

[Luke Kirkwood]

In answer to the question of why is not all of Victoria covered.

The registered Aboriginal Parties or RAPs are an official legislated term established by the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006. Much like Native Title, Aboriginal groups who represent community and country must apply to the Aboriginal Heritage Council to be recognised as a RAP. 

https://www.aboriginalheritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/registered-aboriginal-party-applications-council

The groups must meet certain criteria into order to recognised as a RAP. As a result you have gaps in the RAP map. It's also important to note that RAPs are not the be all/end all as well. For example the Bpangerang are part of the Yorta Yorta RAP boundary, but they don't necessarily see themselves as part of that RAP group. 

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "QGIS Australia User Group" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to australian-qgis-use...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/australian-qgis-user-group/CAFORoyguUH-hx_gQ2xQYphoQjuopDaSmk8H%3DE5hVQ3rz7aFH0g%40mail.gmail.com.

[Emma Hain]

I thought it might be a good place to post this link as well - for those of you who know David Garcia (mapmakerdavid) he has been involved with this group:

https://www.landcoalition.org/en/

His thesis would also be worth a read.

Kind regards

Em

Emma Hain — Product Manager/Senior GIS Analyst
em...@north-road.com

North Road Cartography • Development • Spatial Analysis north-road.com QGIS User Conference 2025 2-3 June, Norrköping, Sweden FOSS4G 2025 17-23 November, Auckland, New Zealand

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/australian-qgis-user-group/CAKsRqB3itZW821WfrXRQfSOzkayFx67j_sH%3DmAG0RxHC3ZeR3w%40mail.gmail.com.

[George Miles]

Hello all!

I found this topic really interesting. I'm a university student from Greece working on my thesis about Indigenous Planning, focusing on Australia's First Peoples. (Don't ask why, I'm not entirely sure how I ended up here myself!). Anyway, I'm really impressed by the government GIS data products available in Australia; Greece is far behind in this field. In my research, I've already found most of the sources referenced here. However, one thing is bothering me: the accuracy and availability of data regarding indigenous settlements, particularly in the Northern Territory. My initial step was to download data from OSM (which I know isn't a reliable source for this), but then I found some ABS geodata on 'Indigenous Locations'. These datasets are based on Statistical Areas Level 1 (SA1s). My concern is whether they represent an unusual - weird spatial categorization (similar to what we have in Greece), and I'm struggling to determine this from the ABS metadata due to my unfamiliarity with the study area. Additionally, these ABS 'Indigenous Location' datasets have polygon geometries. While this isn't actually an issue, it's confusing because I've found older maps (10-20 years old) derived from ABS data that depict Aboriginal settlements/communities using point geometries. I guess this happened to esnure privacy etc. I've tried the NT Atlas and Spatial Directory (https://www.ntlis.nt.gov.au/imfPublic/imf.jsp?site=nt_atlas), but it won't allow me to download this information. I also found this Google MyMaps link (https://ahnt.org.au/country/remote-communities/), which I could use to digitize the information if there's no better solution, and this ABS community map (https://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/subscriber.nsf/0/499711EC612FF76ECA2574520010E1FE/$File/communitymap.pdf), which uses point geometries.

Can anyone here offer some help or insights?  

[Maia Williams]

Hi George,

Aboriginal community representations in ABS data are tricky!

If you’re interested in total population counts then UCL boundaries are most useful, and when UCL isn't present then ILOC or SAL is next best for Aboriginal communities. I wrote a summary of this logic in Footnotes 4 and 5 of this blog post  (https://wikimedia.org.au/wiki/Populating_Wikipedia:_New_tool_integrating_Australian_Census_data).

But if you're not interested in total  population figures, then ILOC boundaries should give you the most complete set of community location polygon representations (of the ABS geography types).

Basically UCL is a density-defined boundary made up of SA1 areas. Like you said, ILOC areas are also made up of SA1s but only include counts of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander people. SAL counts everyone but doesn't follow SA1 boundaries. So small (low density) communities won't get a UCL, only an ILOC boundary.

The relationships between ABS geography types is summarised here quite nicely: https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/standards/australian-statistical-geography-standard-asgs-edition-3/jul2021-jun2026#asgs-diagram

As for ABS point data - I don't know of such a dataset. I don't think they publish their older geographic structure that might have used points.

Sorry, I fear that might be more confusing than useful!

Cheers,
Maia

[Adam Steer]

Hi George

Sounds interesting! 

Always, always reach out to the people whose land you are studying. The principle of "nothing for us or about us without us" is really important, and also really useful in any global work around awareness of one of Earth's oldest living cultures.

I don't know who are the traditional owners of the places you want to understand - a very quick search came up with this group:

https://www.nlc.org.au/

and this group:

https://www.clc.org.au/

Maybe they can help? Reach out for a yarn! (yarn = discussion, may take many tangents, important to available for listening because the important stuff might come in sideways)

Hope that helps!

Adam

[Brad Hards]

On Saturday, 31 May 2025 1:41:52 AM AEST George Miles wrote:
> Additionally, these ABS
> 'Indigenous Location' datasets have polygon geometries. While this isn't
> actually an issue, it's confusing because I've found older maps (10-20
> years old) derived from ABS data that depict Aboriginal
> settlements/communities using point geometries.

I am not familiar with your study area, but be careful of making
generalisations about areas. One area I've visited in WA is shown here:
https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=16/-18.87719/125.92158

The area shown as the built up area is not all an indigenous community. Its
partly an indigenous community (South-eastern part), partly a school area
(central part), and partly a non-indigenous station homestead (North-western
part).

The station (Christmas Creek) may be all that is shown on earlier maps.

By contrast, the station on the other side of the highway (Mount Pierre) is an
indigenous operated station, so the polygon could be significantly larger. Or
you could just look at Galeru Gorge as the community.

I think the kids from Mount Pierre (and Ngumpan, and maybe other areas) go to
the Wangkatjunka school. So different language groups, different backgrounds,
different situtations.

Also, communities evolve, and the temporal aspect to the data is critical, but
also generalised. So everything above might be wrong, because its been a
while.

Others provided good advice. Its complicated, and aggregating data across
sources is fraught.

Brad

[George Miles]

Thank you all for your valuable contributions. Maia's clarifications, Adam's prompts, and Brad's detailed case description have certainly helped me. However, I'd like to clear the air on a few things regarding my project's scope. Sorry in advance if I'm being verbose or taking up too much space with these details.

My Master's research aims to fuse social research methods with a spatial planner's perspective and knowledge. It's exploring the evolution of its own identity through a sociological approach utilizing indirect methods and existing scholarship (e.g., literature review, film analysis, documentaries). While I'm very careful with my sources for the social aspect, the spatial dimension is exploratory and focuses on a large scale at the territory/regional level.

As a Master's thesis conducted in Greece, it might share the common fate of many such studies, which are primarily archived within academic institutions rather than being broadly disseminated or actively utilized. If mine gets approved for publication, I plan to incorporate questionnaires and techniques that could eventually lead to "yarning circles." Given these constraints, I humbly believe my research doesn't require (or is capable of) direct involvement of Indigenous peoples, at least at this stage.

On a related note, I've observed a significant discrepancy between the point-based maps I've found (like those mentioned earlier) and the polygon data from the ABS. This holds true for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous settlements. I'll be further exploring this issue, including the use of crowdsourced data from OSM, and will be sure to share any insights I find with the forum. 

Thanks again for your help and quick respones, much appreciated. 

George

[Emma Hain]

Hi George

I see your research is about Indigenous Planning.  If you are researching about how it has been undertaken and the measures,  

you will find some resources here: https://www.indigenousteaching.com/useful-links - on here you will also find previous 'Closing the Gap' planning that is highly contentious and political - so be careful when using it.

As per Adam's prompt, and if you see David Garcia's PhD Thesis, studying Indigenous peoples, particularly in Australia, is for the communities to control. So if it is about the people and their land, then you need to follow ethical procedures.

I would also be looking  into the Indigenous Ranger's program. 

Sorry if this seems a lot from us, but it is something a lot of us in the FOSS4G community feel very sensitive about. Mapping in the past has been the tool of those that have invaded and destroyed the rich culture and ownership of lands of the original people on which we live. Plus it has been in our recent past as well. The legislation that has been used in determining the First People's lands is also at the will of the political parties of the day, and again highly contentious. 

I would probably check out Bruce Pascoe's Dark Emu to get an introductory understanding of the history. 

Kind regards

Em

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "QGIS Australia User Group" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to australian-qgis-use...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/australian-qgis-user-group/0441d152-4359-4bfd-bf0f-02452414943dn%40googlegroups.com.

[Carlos Porras]

Hi George,

I will second Emma’s email and suggestions.

To me is tricky to get involve in this topic, but I can tell you a bit about it. I (indigenous person from another continent), working in a small Indigenous practice in the planning, architecture and design industry can be a bit touchy.

Dark Emu is excellent book to read (I have hundreds more to suggest), read about Marcia Langton and Danièle Hromek research. Do not reach out to LACs (personal opinion).

This guys https://www.winyama.com.au/ are excellent too

Happy to help from my end if needed 

Cheers,

Carlos

I live and work on Stolen Gadigal land lll

I acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and community

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/australian-qgis-user-group/CAKjVMPydqvwg%2B95C_5Rm5hc8K2oVK%2By1i6FQ9jTNkwK1Ezvu%3DQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Ia...@jcis.net.au]

This is a contentious topic even within Aboriginal communities. I would start with https://aiatsis.gov.au/ which has a copy of a map of Aboriginal groups based on the work by Tindale and later Horton. This is different from Aboriginal organisations such as land councils which might incorporate traditional owners or Aboriginal people simply living in a particular area but who might have affiliations elsewhere. The notions of tribes and boundaries are basically European in original and may not correspond to what Aboriginal people identify as their affiliation and their country.

 

Cheers+

 

Dr Iain Stuart

JCIS Consultants

 

P.O. Box 2397

Burwood North

NSW, 2134

(0413) 380116 (m)

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/australian-qgis-user-group/7E889A9D-A4FE-4A49-9897-31603DE06759%40gmail.com.