It is one thing to know what the law says: it is another to try to understand what it means and how it is applied. In native title, when Indigenous relationships with country are viewed through the lens of a Western property rights regime, this complexity is seriously magnified.

Contents: ch. One Law's Metaphysics -- An Ethnography of Law -- Law's Metaphysics -- Native Title, Continuity and Society -- ch. Two When Whiteman Came In -- Country -- The First Explorers -- Pearling Days -- Settlement -- ch. Three Mission Days -- Sunday Island Mission in the Hadley Era (1899--1923) -- Lombadina and `Correct Mission Method' -- UAM at Sunday Island (1923--62) -- Cosmology and Aboriginal Tradition -- ch. Four A Land and Sea Claim -- Claiming Country -- Making a Claim -- Land Rights and Land Alienation -- A Genealogy of a Claim -- The Road to Litigation -- ch. Five The Ethnographic Archive -- Law, Anthropology, Experts -- The Ethnographic Archive -- Jawi Country, Bardi Country -- Anthropological Contentions -- Jawi and the `Piggyback' Premise -- Words, Facts, Fieldnotes -- ch. Six In the Court -- Evidence -- The Trial Begins -- Contentions and Their Effects -- On Country Evidence -- Gender-restricted Evidence -- Island and Sea Evidence --Contents note continued: The `Second Trial' and the Impact of Yorta Yorta -- ch. Seven Legal Submissions and Crosscurrents -- One Society... or Two? -- The Applicants' Case -- The State's Submissions -- The Commonwealth's Submissions -- ch. Eight How Judgments Are Made -- From Evidence to Reasons for Judgment -- The Islands -- Juljinabur (Brue Reef) -- Jayirri (Jackson Island) -- Julum (Middle Island) -- Reasons, Evidence and the Archive -- ch. Nine Society and Sea on Appeal -- Technically Land or Technically Water -- One Society or Two? -- Errors of Law, Matters of Fact -- A `Bardi Jawi' Society -- What's in a Name? -- ch. Ten Recognition's Paradox -- Law, Society, Sea -- Bardi Jawi -- Moments in Time.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 249-271) and index.