Indigenous home-ownership on communal title lands

Purpose and methods This study investigates the applicability of home ownership to Indigenous people living on communal title lands. The research examines the capacity for Indigenous people to enter this tenure, and whether there is an aspiration to do so. A central theme is also the meaning of home ownership to Indigenous people living on communal title lands, and the constructs of home ownership with which Indigenous people identify. Whether there is any contrast between the meanings, experiences and expectations of those living on communal title land and those on non-communal title land, in public rental, or private rental, was also a key theme. It was hypothesised that tenure type is an important determinant of the ways in which individuals understand their rights and responsibilities regarding their homes. This study was carried out in five interview sites across Australia. Around half of these were conducted with householders on communal title land, including at Cherbourg (Qld) and Nguiu (NT), and the remainder with householders on non-communal title land at Dajarra (a Queensland rural town), in Sydney suburbs and at Carnarvon (WA) including some from this towns discrete satellite community of Mungullah. Chapter two provides further detail about each of these sites.