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Kabila

How a land claim moves from claim to title

The usual stages by which a community turns long use of its land into ownership that the state's law recognises.

if upheldMap and documentFile the claimEvidence testedRuling or agreementMark the boundaryTitle registeredManage and defend

  1. Map and document. A claim begins with proof of connection. Communities walk their land with GPS units and elders, mapping where they live, farm, hunt and worship. Oral history is central evidence.
  2. File the claim. The route depends on the country. Under India's Forest Rights Act of 2006, claims start at the Gram Sabha, the village assembly. In Australia they go to the Federal Court.
  3. Evidence tested. Claims are tested. Courts in Canada and Australia now accept oral history as evidence. The community usually has to show a continuing link with the land since before colonisation.
  4. Ruling or agreement. The result may be a judgment or a negotiated deal. In 2014 Canada's Supreme Court declared that the Tsilhqot'in Nation holds Aboriginal title to a large area of British Columbia.
  5. Mark the boundary. Demarcation means marking the boundary on the ground. In Brazil a federal agency studies and marks out an indigenous territory before the President confirms it by decree.
  6. Title registered. Title is then registered. It is usually collective: the land belongs to the people as a whole, and in many countries it cannot be sold. This protects it for future generations.
  7. Manage and defend. A title on paper is not the end. Communities still have to patrol boundaries and go to court against illegal logging, mining and land grabs.

Read the lesson

  1. Land, treaties and titleLand is the foundation of almost every indigenous claim. You will learn how peoples hold land, what treaties and title are, and how a claim travels through the legal system.

Seven peoples, once a week

Every Monday: seven peoples you may never have heard of, who they are and where they live.