This paper will focus on issues raised by the 1998 Federal Court finding against the Yorta Yorta people in their Native Title claim. The finding in this case will be used to explore some salient themes in the 'colonial attitude' that continues to shape relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Australia. Chief among these themes, it will be argued, is the representation of Indigenous peoples as lacking their own forms of government and sovereignty. This image of Indigenous peoples has a privileged place in Western political thought and has been an influential theme in the writings of colonists, colonial administrators of and 'experts' on Indigenous peoples. Exploration of some of this literature will be used to highlight the intimate connection between the colonial dispossession of Indigenous peoples, and the denial of their political sovereignty. It will be argued that the current effort to address the issue of Native Title separate from questions of Indigenous sovereignty (following the precedent set by the Mabo case) manifest an enduring colonial legacy that must be seriously addressed. One way of doing so, it will be suggested, is to reconsider the representation of colonial and post-colonial history as an interruption that has removed 'traditional' Indigenous rights. The paper thus seeks to challenge the influence this interpretation of the past has been allowed to exert through the euphemistic notion of the 'tides of history'.