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How Did Eddie Mabo Change Australia

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Introduction Eddie Mabo was the man who initiated the land rights argument for indigenous people. He found out that where he was born and lived, at a place called Mer Island was not legally his or his peoples land. This news angered and upset Eddie Mabo and he began speaking out and telling people about his story. It was while Eddie Mabo was working as a gardener at James Cook University that he crossed paths with land rights advocates and some legal minds who would become influential in his later argument to have the indigenous right to land recognised by the courts. He received a great amount of support especially from fellow Indigenous people. In the early 1980s a lawyer suggested he take their challenge against the Queensland government on the issue of land ownership to the court of law. Eddie Mabo followed this advice and proceeded with taking his case to the courts. May 1982 Eddie Mabo and four other Meriam people took their case to the High Court in Australia. They claim that Murray Island, the reefs and other surrounding islands were inhabited exclusively by the Meriam people. The Miriam people lived there in communities and spoke their own language. They lived by their own laws and customs. Over …show more content…

The Mabo decision changed the legal, political and social relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. In recognising the traditional rights of Murray Islanders it changed Australia forever. The Mabo decision opened the doors for other indigenous people and groups to be able to claim ownership of land. They were required to prove that they had continuous connection to the land and maintained their traditional associating with it. The 'native title ' is the recognition by law that some aboriginal and torres strait islander people have rights to certain land due to their traditional laws and customs. To be granted 'native title ' they must prove that they have not done anything to break their connection to the land, such as selling or leasing the

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To become a part of a society or culture by social characteristics and being part of a group. The Mabo Case was a legal case held in 1992 in the High Court of Australia which determined that Indigenous people should be treated equally using

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After 10 long years Torres Strait Islander Eddie ‘Koiki’ Mabo has lead indigenous Australians to a victory over the Queensland government. This win this case is a historical moment, as of yesterday, the indigenous Australians have been recognised as the owners of Murray Island. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are known to have resided in Australia, 40,000 to 60,000 years before the British arrived in 1788. When the British took over they decided to take all the land for themselves even though the indigenous Australians were here first. This court case recognises indigenous Australians unique connection to the land and acknowledges that they have the rights to the land.

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Eddie Mabo was a Torres Strait Islander who believed Australian laws and land ownership were wrong and fought to change them. On 20 May 1982, Eddie Mabo, Sam Passi, David Passi, Celuia Mapo Salee and James Rice began their legal claim for ownership of their lands against the Queensland Government. In 1985, while the Mabo case was proceeding, the Queensland Government tried to avoid the issue of whether rights of Indigenous peoples survived colonisation. Due to this the leader of the Queensland Government Joh Bjelke-Petersen decided to introduce the Queensland Coast Islands Declaratory Act 1985. This Act had claimed to extinguish any rights and interests that the Meriam people may have had before its enactment.

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The action was brought as a test case to determine the legal rights of the Meriam people to land on the islands of Mer, Dauar and Waier in the Torres Strait, which were annexed to the state of Queensland in 1879. Prior to British contact the Meriam people had lived on the islands in a subsistence economy based on cultivation and fishing. Land on the islands was not subject of public or general community ownership, but was regarded as belonging to individuals or groups. In 1985 the Queensland Government attempted to terminate the proceedings by enacting the Queensland Coast Islands Declaratory Act 1985, which declared that on annexation of the islands in 1879, title to the islands was vested in the state of Queensland "freed from all other

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The Mabo Decision was a turning point for the recognition of the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. From recognising ownership of traditional lands to raising awareness of racial discrimination, it affected the Indigenous Australian society in various ways. Firstly, the Mabo Decision was significant because it acknowledged the ownership of traditional lands by abolishing “terra nullius”, meaning that the land is empty and owned by no one. Previously, the British denied the Indigenous Australians' connection and ownership of the land by declaring that Australia was "terra nullius". However, on the 3rd of June, 1992, the High Court decided that the Merriam people were "entitled as against the whole word to possession, occupation

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The Mabo decision of the high court in 1992 is vastly significant as it marks history as the victory of indigenous Australian land rights against the federal government, who had colonised their land and refused to acknowledge that Australia was originally owned by the ATSI people but became a terra nullius land due to the European colonists. The events that have occurred before 1992 such as the The Aboriginal Land Rights Act (NT) of 1976 and the bark petition is deemed less significant than the Mabo decision. I firmly believe that the Mabo case is an extraordinary achievement. it started in 1982 when Eddie Mabo brought up a case against the supreme court of Queensland that Indigenous Australians should have land rights. After almost a whole

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Indigenous Australians had experienced a long history of dispossession, colonization, and marginalisation. The doctrine of terra nullius was used by the British to justify the of Indigenous lands, without recognising their traditional ownership or sovereignty. It was not until 1965 Indigenous Australians were allowed to vote, two years later 1967 Indigenous Australians were finally granted citizenship and in 1985 they were treated equal with other voters, ending almost two centuries of political exclusion.   The Mabo decision is significant as it marked the first time the High Court explicitly rejected the doctrine of terra nullius and recognised the existence of Indigenous land rights. The case was named after Eddie Mabo, a Torres Strait Islander man who, alongside a group of Meriam people, challenged the Queensland state government with the Commonwealth and High Court to claim back their family land on Mer Island.

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For Ben Hall a young man, the evolving and progressive society of Australia presented an opportunity for the adventurous to have ago and to build a solid foundation for the future without the social judgments that long been a handicap for those of limited means and wherein some sections of Australian society there still retained the structured aristocracy of the old country where title and inherited wealth determined a path of diversity for those that were termed privileged, this, of course, excluded Ben Hall. It was for those in Australia with courage and determination that the land could offer them that same opportunity of position in the new aristocracy of the colony which was being forged out of the criminals of England who had been bound down by iron chains and where the land for those ex-convicts presented a new wealth for men marked long ago and sent to this penal land for crimes that were so petty that in a modern Australia or England would not ever see the courthouse let alone seven to fourteen years incarcerated with severe physical punishment.

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