FW: Emailing PS-11_Indigeneity-requirement_v7-0.pdf

From: Ricky Pascoe [mailto:pascoericky@yahoo.com.au]
Sent: Tuesday, 15 February 2022 1:06 PM
Subject: Emailing PS-11_Indigeneity-requirement_v7-0.pdf

The  Indigeneity  test  for  individuals The  Australian courts  have  developed  a  3-point legal test1  to  determine whether  an individual  person is  an Aboriginal  and/or  Torres  Strait  Islander person, which is: •  the person is  of  Aboriginal  and Torres  Strait  Islander  descent •  the person identifies  themselves  as  an Aboriginal  and/or  Torres  Strait Islander  person, and •  the community recognises  the  person as  an  Aboriginal and/or  Torres  Strait  Islander  person. More  recent  cases  have  also established the  following principles  in relation to  the  3-point test:2 •  Some degree of  descent  is  necessary but  is  not  of  itself  a  sufficient condition of  eligibility to  be  an Aboriginal  person. •  A small  degree  of  Aboriginal  descent  coupled  with genuine self-identification  or  communal  recognition may be  sufficient for  eligibility. •  A substantial  degree  of  descent  alone  may be  enough to regard someone as  an Aboriginal  person,  given the  general  communal  recognition of  Aboriginality that  usually accompanies  that  descent. •  Communal recognition as  an Aboriginal  person may  be the best  evidence available  given the  difficulties  of  proof  of  Aboriginal  descent  flowing from, among other  things,  the  lack  of  written  family  records. The  registrar  will employ  these  principles  to  consider  whether  a  person is  an  Aboriginal  and Torres  Strait  Islander  person  under  the CATSI  Act (see  section  6  of  this  policy  statement). Each community and organisation will  have  its  own processes  or  protocols for  recognising a  person  as  an Aboriginal  and Torres  Strait  Islander  person. The  registrar  relies  on the  communities  and organisations  using their  own knowledge, processes  and  protocols  to provide  evidence  that  a  person is  an  Aboriginal  and/or  Torres  Strait  Islander  person to satisfy the  Indigeneity  test.