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How Significant Was The Mabo Decision 1995

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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 …show more content…

this event has the support of the liberal and labour parties as well as the prime minister Whitlam who had helped approved the land rights act, this was also a step into having trust between both parties. After Prime Minister Whitlam was put into power, he promised to push for Aboriginal land rights, the Australian government bought privately owned land to give back to the Aboriginals since the act had been introduced, and almost 50% of the northern territory was returned to the ATSI people. The year 1975 marked a great historical year in Australia as it was the year the Prime minister poured soil into indigenous Australians' hands to symbolise their victory in claiming Australia as their …show more content…

the bark petition is the first petition addressing the authorities for trespassing on their land to open a bauxite mine, their petition was ignored and the mine was opened. The ATSI people had called to deal with the matter on legal terms but were unsuccessful many times. Even after they attempted to notify the government, a published report was aired but showed no signs of recommending a stop to mining, rather recommending to only protect the sacred sites. The rejections of the government led to the first land rights legislation in Australia, called the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976, however, the petition gained popularity, being signed by multiple Australians, the judge decided to accept the evidence that the Yolgnu people have been living at yirrkala for thousands of years, this impacted society as aboriginal people were recognised as Australian citizens for the first time. despite their success, their attempts were not strong enough to have more significance than the Mabo

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