Today marks the momentous victory to overturn the precedent known as 'terra nullius' in the High Court and honours the legacy of the man behind it — Eddie Mabo.
For more than 200 years, the Australian governments acted under the presumption that Australia belonged to no-one before colonisation.
His mother died during childbirth and he was raised by his mother's brother, Benny Mabo, whose surname he adopted.He was an activist for the Torres Strait Islander community and co-founded one of Australia's first black community schools.Bonita and Eddie Mabo opened the Black Community School in North Queensland.
A year later, Mabo and four other Meriam people — Celuia Mapo Salee, James Rice, David Passi and Sam Passi — took their legal claim for ownership of the lands of Mer to the High Court.On June 3, 1992, the High Court overturned the legal concept of "terra nullius" — that land claimed by white settlers belonged to no-one.Sadly, Mabo did not live to see his victory, having died of cancer five months earlier aged 55.
The Queensland government tried to circumvent the outcome by passing the Queensland Coast Islands Declaratory Act in 1985, which retrospectively abolished the Islanders' claims to Mer.
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