Synopsis

King William IV recognised the continued rights to land for Aboriginal people in South Australia's founding document, the Letters Patent, in Feb 1836. The first ever Aboriginal rights granted in Australia's colonial history. Rights to the land, to occupy and enjoy their land for always, enshrined in law by the King's seal.

What actually occurred in South Australia after colonisation in 1836 was treason. The King's Letters Patent was disobeyed and Aboriginal rights that were granted, to occupy and enjoy their land, were denied.

The King’s Letters Patent (Rights granted to Aboriginal people) : "...Provided Always that nothing in those our Letters Patent contained shall affect or be construed to affect the rights of any Aboriginal Natives of the said Province to the actual occupation or enjoyment in their own Persons or in the Persons of their Descendants of any Lands there in now actually occupied or enjoyed by such Natives."

Consecutive governments have ignored the legal rights in the King's Letters Patent - still enshrined in law today - and South Australia's Aboriginal people and Descendants have lived with the consequences ever since.

King's Seal exposes the "King’s Letters Patent" and the conspiracy, treason, betrayal, theft and murder that was perpetrated after colonisation, to deny South Australia's Aboriginal people rights to occupy and enjoy their land, air, waters and seas.

The documentary exposes South Australia’s hidden history, uncovers breaches of the King’s Letters Patent and documents the struggle for recognition of rights to land granted to Aboriginal people by the King in the Letters Patent.

Watch 'King's Seal' on demand (fee required).

View King's Seal trailer