essential characteristics the following characteristics are, in my opinion, relevant; (3) either a common geographical origin, or descent from a small number of common ancestors; (4) a common language, not necessarily peculiar to the group; (5) a common literature peculiar to the group; (6) a common religion different from that of neighbouring groups or from the general community surrounding it; (7) being a minority or being an oppressed or a dominant group within a larger community, for example a conquered people (say, the inhabitants of England shortly after the Norman conquest) and their conquerors might both be ethnic groups.
270 His Lordship also adopted (at 564) the passage from the judgment of Richardson J in King-Ansell v Police that I have set out above, saying that it "sums up in a way upon which I could not hope to improve the views which I have been endeavouring to express." Sikhs were held (at 565) to be an ethnic group on the basis that although they were originally a religious community, the community is no longer purely religious in character. Also, Sikhs have a distinctive and self-conscious community; they have a written language which a small proportion of Sikhs can read but which can be read by a much higher proportion of Sikhs than Hindus; and they were at one time politically supreme in the Punjab.
271 In Mabo v Queensland (No 1) [1988] HCA 69; 166 CLR 186, one of the questions that called for an answer was whether, on the assumption that the plaintiffs could establish the native title land rights claimed by them in respect of the Murray Islands, s 3 of the Queensland Coast Islands Declaratory Act 1985 (Qld) which declared all such rights to have been extinguished was inconsistent with s 10(1) of the RDA within s 109 of the Constitution. A majority of the Court comprising Brennan, Deane, Toohey and Gaudron JJ held that there was such an inconsistency. The joint judgment of Brennan, Toohey and Gaudron JJ simply treated the Miriam people from the Murray Islands as being "persons of a particular race, colour or national or ethnic origin" within the meaning of s 10(1) without analysis of the meaning of that composite expression. Justice Deane, however, discussed the meaning of the expression within the context of Art 5 of CERD. In that context, his Honour reasoned (at 230) that the word "race" and the phrase "national or ethnic origin" are not to be given a pedantic or unduly narrow meaning. That reasoning also applies to those expressions in s 18C.
272 The formulation of the meaning of "ethnic origin" in Mandla v Dowell Lee was adopted by the Full Court in Macabenta at 210. Also, on the basis of King-Ansell v Police, it was accepted in Miller v Wertheim [2002] FCAFC 156 at [14] per Heerey, Lindgren and Merkel JJ that Jewish people in Australia comprise a group of people with an "ethnic origin" for the purposes of the RDA. Similarly, the broad conception of a group of people with a common "ethnic origin" that had been developed in King-Ansell v Police and Mandla v Dowell Lee was adopted in Jones v
