Entitlement

Entitlement

Two families living on the same property have youngsters disappear. One family gets government support in the search; the other family know that the government stole them away; they also know that the government gave title to the land to the other family, even though their ancestors had lived there for 50,000 years. The situation seems hopeless for the indigenous family until a young doctor, Cate takes control and tries to implement justice. Will she succeed? She has been raised without prejudice despite the bone deep fear her father has for the traditional owners who his ancestors displaced. This is an iconic confrontation and the author's story shows that the situation is negotiable with a mutually beneficial outcome widely applicable wherever land has two claimants in non-zero sum competition. Jessica White has told a fiction story that paves the way for real land title sharing. The solution presented is practicable in Australia, where the story is set, because European land use methods have depleted the land and the stature of indigenous land use has increased. Return of the land to Aboriginal hunting, foraging and cultural uses is logical and should displace harmful use by entitlement, whether written on the land Title or simply taken from owners of land being degraded, by right. Entitlement brings a new solution to entrenched injustice. Read it. White understands the land, its beauty, its uses and their values. She people's her stories with vignettes of the characters on the stations, in the hamlets and towns of inland modern Australia who are locked in a confrontation that can be ended. Buy it and do it.