EBOOK Discovering Indigenous Lands:The Doctrine of Discovery in the English Colonies

This book presents new material and shines fresh light on the under-explored        historical and legal evidence about the use of the doctrine of discovery in        Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States.North America, New Zealand and        Australia were colonised by England under an international legal principle that is        known today as the doctrine of discovery. When Europeans set out to explore and        exploit new lands in the fifteenth through to the twentieth centuries, they        justified their sovereign and property claims over these territories and the        indigenous peoples with the discovery doctrine. This legal principle was justified        by religious and ethnocentric ideas of European and Christiansuperiority over the        other cultures, religions, and races of the world. The doctrine provided that        newly-arrived Europeans automatically acquired property rights in the lands of        indigenous peoples and gained political and commercial rights over the inhabitants.          The English colonial governments and colonistsin North America, New Zealand and        Australia all utilised this doctrine, and still use it today to assert legal rights        to indigenous lands and to assert control over indigenous peoples.Written by        indigenous legal academics - an American Indian from the Eastern Shawnee Tribe, a        New Zealand Maori (Ngati Rawkawa and Ngai Te Rangi), an Indigenous Australian, and a        Cree (Neheyiwak) in the country now known as Canada, Discovering Indigenous Lands        provides a unique insight into the insidious historical and contemporary application        of the doctrine of discovery.