First Nations people across the world have a complex relationship with treaties, many of which have been fought over, broken and continue to evolve today.
Australia has just seen its first treaty signed between Victorian First Nations people and the state government.
But what are treaties, and what relationships do they establish between First Nations people and governments today?
What is a treaty?
Australia was the only developed country colonised by the British to have never signed a formal treaty or treaties with First Nations people.
When the First Fleet raised the flag in 1788, there were no individual agreements — or treaties — with the hundreds of First Nations groups across the continent.
Treaties were not signed between the British and the First Peoples. (Algernon Talmage/State Library of NSW, public domain)
The British claimed the land using the legal doctrine of terra nullius, meaning land belonging to no-one, which was overturned in the landmark 1992 Mabo case.
The Victorian Parliamentary Library defines a treaty as "a binding agreement between two parties, but this means different things in different contexts".
Treaties between governments and Indigenous peoples often focus on "land and economic settlements, policy programs, resolving histo
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