Aboriginal Sensibilities and Sacred Sense of Place 1788 heralded the beginning of European settlement of Australia. Along with destruction of much Aboriginal culture, Aborigines were systematically dispossessed of their land. Britain had declared Australia as terra nullius - a land without owners. This was really the first act violating the complex structure of Aboriginal society. Unlike Western culture, where land is viewed as property, there is no such commodification in Aboriginal society.
Land is fundamental to Aboriginal life in very different ways.
First and foremost, land is regarded as the living record of all significant events dating from the Dreamtime. It is in fact a physical and psychic map by which Aboriginal people source their laws, their history, their kinship and identity. Some things can not be bought and sold, they simply are. The responsibility to care for and protect the land in general and sacred sites in particular is fundamental to the spiritual and culture life of Aboriginal Australia. In this context the dispossession of their traditional land is the most keenly felt injustice by Aboriginal people.