The Wentworth lecture native title: The beginning or the end of justice?

To deliver a public lecture named after William Charles Wentworth is no easy task. It must do justice to an extraordinary Australian and do so in a way that reflects some of his special attributes. Wentworth was born in 1907. Before achieving political office, he was an active advocate of Aboriginal advancement. It was his initiative, as a member of the House of Representatives in 1960, that led to the passage of legislation establishing the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies [since 1989, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies]. That Institute has become a leading national resource in developing an Australian understanding of indigenous peoples and their culture and history and some appreciation of the colonising holocaust which has overtaken them for the last two centuries.