Project to safeguard Aboriginal secrets

Project to safeguard Aboriginal secrets - 03 Apr 2008 - NZ Herald: World / International News:

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"Vines says that most Aborigines do not make wills, and that inheritances can be enmeshed in issues such as property and children.

'Is it common law property or native title? What happens to children and other relatives in a kinship system totally unlike that of Western society?

'Without a will, there is no executor to make decisions about disposal of the body and if there is a dispute, it has to go to court. 'That's a difficulty in itself.'

Vines says the Australian system reflects Western kinship structures, not the Aboriginal family structure, in which words indicating kinship often do not exactly match Australian legal meanings."