Removing the Veil from the ‘Rights of Nature’: The Dichotomy between First Nations Customary Rights and Environmental Legal Personhood

The legal concept of the creation of a legal entity is not trailblazing territory of itself, although introducing and advocating for the legal personality of a river may be. However, advocating for the rights of nature on grounds that all humans over-exploit, abuse and contaminate the environment is as misleading as it is untrue. The Indigenous peoples of Australia have a primary, unique and inherent obligation to ‘Care for Country’ according to the Indigenous rule of law; exercising the protection and management of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander environment. The Indigenous rule of law and the obligation to ‘Care for Country’ stretches back many millennia yet Australian domestic laws and policies fail to properly support the exercise of such obligations by Indigenous Australians. In this article I argue, rather than embracing a ‘rights of nature’ property paradigm in Australia, we should instead empower First Nations people to take a pivotal, even primary, role in caring for Country.