Examples of Articles
The Law of the Land: Jurisprudence and Indigenous Lore in Victoria and the World
MLA Educational Series — Law, Land, and Philosophy
The phrase “Law of the Land” refers to the principles, rights, and responsibilities that govern people and places. In Western legal traditions, it is rooted in jurisprudence — the philosophy or theory of law. In Indigenous traditions, however, the law of the land is not a metaphor: it is literal, living, and sacred. Across Victoria and the world, Indigenous lore (customary law) defines human conduct through Country, kinship, and spirituality. This article explores how jurisprudence and Indigenous lore have developed in parallel — one grounded in abstract principles, the other in ancestral connection — and how they continue to converge in the modern world through truth-telling, environmental law, and treaty.
Jurisprudence: The Philosophy of Law
Jurisprudence (from the Latin juris prudentia, meaning “knowledge of law”) is the study of the nature, sources, and purpose of legal systems. It asks fundamental questions:
What is law?
Who creates it?
Why do people obey it?
How does it relate to morality and power?
Western jurisprudence developed through ancient Greek, Roman, and later European thought. Philosophers such as Aristotle, Cicero, Thomas Aquinas, and later John Locke and Jeremy Bentham each shaped ideas of justice and rights (Tamanaha 2019). By the 18th and 19th centuries, British law became the dominant system exported through colonisation, carrying assumptions about ownership, hierarchy, and human dominion over nature.
In Australia, this system arrived with the doctrine of terra nullius — the legal fiction that the land belonged to no one before British claim (Reynolds 1987). This erased pre-existing Indigenous systems of law and stewardship. Yet, Indigenous peoples already had deeply structured legal orders that governed conduct, kinship, ceremony, and ecological balance.
Indigenous Lore and the Law of Country in Victoria
In Victoria, Indigenous lore predates British law by tens of thousands of years. Among the Kulin Nations — including the Wadawurrung, Woiwurrung, Taungurung, Dja Dja Wurrung, and Boon Wurrung — lore was inherited from ancestral beings such as Bunjil (the Eagle) and Waa (the Crow) (Broome 2005; Barwick 1998). These laws were not written but sung, danced, and embedded in Country.
Core Features of Indigenous Lore
Country as Lore: The land itself is the first legislator. Rivers, mountains, and animals embody lore, memory, and story.
Kinship and Obligation: Law regulates social relations — who one can marry, how one shares food, and who holds custodianship over land or ceremony.
Balance and Reciprocity: Justice means restoring harmony between people and Country, not punishment.
Ancestral Authority: Law originates from the Dreaming — the creative epoch when ancestral beings shaped the land and gave instructions for living.
In Wadawurrung Country, lore dictated that every act — hunting, fishing, gathering, or ceremony — must honour balance. Rivers such as the Barwon (Parwan) and Moorabool (Murrabul) were governed by seasonal rights. Fire, used in mosaic burning, was both ecological management and spiritual obligation (Clarke 2008). To break lore was to offend ancestors and disrupt the natural order.
Collision of Laws: Colonial Jurisprudence and Indigenous Lore
The arrival of British settlers brought two incompatible systems of law. British jurisprudence was anthropocentric — law flowed from human institutions and property rights. Indigenous lore was ecocentric — law flowed from land and relationship. When colonisation imposed terra nullius, Indigenous people were stripped of legal standing and sovereignty (Reynolds 1987).
Massacres, land seizures, and forced missions were legally sanctioned through this system. Indigenous testimony was often inadmissible in courts, and traditional law was dismissed as “custom” rather than recognised jurisprudence (Clark 1995). Yet Indigenous communities maintained their own justice systems in secrecy, continuing to pass on law through story, ceremony, and kinship.
In Victoria, examples such as the Coranderrk resistance (1860s–1880s) show how Indigenous people used both Western legal petitions and traditional law to demand justice. William Barak’s appeals to government combined moral reasoning with Indigenous law, asserting that Coranderrk land was their ancestral right (Barwick 1998).
The Return of Lore: Recognition, Treaty, and Truth-Telling
The 20th and 21st centuries have seen a gradual recognition that Indigenous lore is not folklore but a complete system of law. The Mabo Decision (1992) overturned terra nullius, affirming that Indigenous law and connection to Country persisted despite colonisation (Reynolds 1999). In Victoria, this understanding underpins Native Title, Treaty, and the Yoorrook Justice Commission.
Yoorrook Justice Commission (2021–present): Truth-telling process documenting how Indigenous legal systems were suppressed and how sovereignty endures (Yoorrook 2025).
Treaty Process (First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria 2023): Embeds Indigenous law and decision-making into future governance.
Cultural Heritage Law: Protects sites, languages, and ancestral remains under ICIP (Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property) principles (Janke 1998).
This movement reflects a profound legal shift — from seeing Indigenous lore as “custom” to recognising it as jurisprudence in its own right.
Global Perspectives: Indigenous Jurisprudence Worldwide
Indigenous law is a global inheritance. Across continents, First Nations peoples developed systems balancing law, ecology, and spirit.
Māori Law (Aotearoa/New Zealand): Rooted in Tikanga Māori — laws of balance, tapu (sacredness), and mana (authority). Recognised in the Treaty of Waitangi and New Zealand courts.
First Nations in Canada: First Law recognises relationships between humans, animals, and land. Reconciliation commissions emphasise Indigenous justice and environmental stewardship.
Native American Law (USA): Tribal courts operate under sovereign jurisdiction, blending traditional governance with federal recognition.
Sámi Law (Scandinavia): Land and reindeer herding rights grounded in ancestral Siida law, increasingly recognised in Nordic legal systems.
African Customary Law: Ubuntu philosophy (“I am because we are”) shapes restorative justice models based on community reconciliation (Mbiti 1969).
These systems share common features — collective responsibility, harmony with nature, and continuity with ancestors — values now influencing global environmental and human rights law.
Modern Jurisprudence and Indigenous Wisdom
Contemporary legal thought increasingly acknowledges that Indigenous law offers philosophical depth missing from Western jurisprudence. Environmental jurisprudence, climate law, and rights of nature movements echo Indigenous principles that rivers, forests, and mountains have standing before the law (O’Donnell et al. 2020).
In 2017, New Zealand recognised the Whanganui River as a legal person under Māori law. Similar recognition has followed in Colombia (Atrato River) and India (Ganges). These precedents reveal a shift toward Earth jurisprudence — law that honours ecological interdependence, echoing what Indigenous peoples have taught for millennia.
Conclusion
The history of law and jurisprudence is not a single story of progress, but of collision and reconciliation between worldviews. Western jurisprudence emphasised ownership, rationality, and human supremacy. Indigenous lore emphasises relationship, reciprocity, and respect for living systems.
In Victoria, the revival of Indigenous law through Treaty, truth-telling, and Country-based education represents a return to a more holistic legal order — one that binds ethics, ecology, and ancestry. Globally, Indigenous jurisprudence offers a model for the future of justice: a living law that restores harmony between people, place, and planet.
Reference List
Atkinson, W. (2002). Not One Iota: The Yorta Yorta Struggle for Land Justice. Melbourne: Aboriginal Studies Press.
Barwick, D. (1998). Rebellion at Coranderrk: The Story of an Australian Aboriginal Community. Canberra: Aboriginal History Monograph.
Broome, R. (2005). Aboriginal Victorians: A History Since 1800. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Clark, I. D. (1995). Scars in the Landscape: A Register of Massacre Sites in Western Victoria 1803–1859. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.
Clarke, P. A. (2008). Aboriginal Healing Practices: Smoke, Fire and Plant Use in South-eastern Australia. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.
First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria. (2023). Treaty and Self-Determination: Discussion Papers. Melbourne: State of Victoria.
Janke, T. (1998). Our Culture, Our Future: Report on Australian Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property Rights. Sydney: Michael Frankel & Co.
Mbiti, J. S. (1969). African Religions and Philosophy. London: Heinemann.
O’Donnell, E., Talbot-Jones, J., & Macpherson, E. (2020). Legal Rights for Rivers: The Future of Water Law. London: Routledge.
Reynolds, H. (1987). The Law of the Land. Ringwood: Penguin.
Reynolds, H. (1999). Why Weren’t We Told? A Personal Search for the Truth about Our History. Ringwood: Penguin.
Tamanaha, B. (2019). A Realistic Theory of Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Yoorrook Justice Commission. (2025). Final Report on Truth-Telling and Colonisation in Victoria. Melbourne: State of Victoria.
Written, Researched and Directed by James Vegter and Uncle Reg Abrahams (22 October 2025)
MLA
Sharing the truth of Indigenous and colonial history through film, education, land, and community.
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Copyright MLA – 2025
Magic Lands Alliance acknowledges the Traditional Owners, Custodians, and First Nations communities across Australia and internationally. We honour their enduring connection to the sky, land, waters, language, and culture. We pay respect to Elders past, present, and emerging, and to all First Peoples’ communities and language groups. This article draws only on publicly available information; many cultural practices remain the intellectual property of their respective communities.