How Did Eddie Mabo Change Australia

In the 1971 Gove land rights case, Justice Blackburn ruled that Australia was terra nullius prior European settlement. This judgement was challenged for a total of 3 years but all attempts failed. However, on the 20th May 1982, Eddie Koiki Mabo and 4 other Indigenous people began their legal claim for ownership of their traditional lands on the island of Mer in the Torres Strait. The case was later taken to supreme court and after ten years, the case was closed and the government granted the indigenous people of australia their rightful land. Before this, Eddie had been helping his community from a young age.

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

The Aboriginals had original taught the early settlers how to trap and hunt about the land but in the documents associated with the deed and the land transfer, it was written that “Any claims of Indians too compensation for lands required for purposes of settlement shall be disposed of by the Canadian Government and the company shall be relieved of all responsibility in respect of them.”. Instead of the company leaving land for those who had aided them in the beginning. The singled them out due to racism and did not include them in any of the agreements between the HBC and the Crown in which they would receive land for themselves. This could have also contributed to the prejudice against the Aboriginals in future years because during that time period land was equal to power so those without land were treated as the poor and had no say. The deed also affected those who were against poaching and hunting.

When the Europeans first arrived in Australia, Indigenous Australians lost all their land rights. This was mainly due to the Europeans claiming that Australia was Terra nullius. Terra Nullius was a international law stating that if territory was not owned, it was to be given to the first nation to discover it and entitled to take over. The Europeans did not recognise the Aboriginals and Torres Strait islander people as the traditional owners of Australia and therefore took all there land rights. The indigenous people were then constricted by the terra nullius rule from 1788 to 1991.

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

“This is our land! It isn’t a piece of pemmican to be cut off and given in little pieces to us. It is ours and we will take what we want.” (voices and visions chapter 8 pg.181, poundmaker in the english tongue) The Cree and many Métis believed that the land was theirs and they were entitled to it.

The High Court ruled that Indigenous Australians had a right to claim native title to traditional lands that were not legally owned by the

Formed in 1957, the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders commenced their campaign with a series of petitions displayed in Source 4 that called for a referendum. This had the effect of not only mobilising support for a change to the constitution but also of informing the public of the issues facing Aborigines. Over the course of the campaign, more than 100,000 signatures were collected and presented to the Parliament in 94 separate petitions (NMA, n.d.). This was a key factor in changing politicians’ minds and the government’s stance (Koori Mail, 2007). A key factor of the support of the referendum by non-indigenous Australians was the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders ‘Yes’ campaign.

Johnson v. McIntosh was a title dispute over acres of land in present-day Illinois. The case, decided by the U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Marshall in 1823, turned on the question of whether or not Native Americans had the right to transfer land title by sale to private citizens. Like many cases that determined the rights of Native Americans, the litigants were non-native whites. The inquiry “therefore, is in a great measure, confined to the power of Indians to give, and of private individuals to receive, a title which can be sustained in the Courts of this country” (pg. 13). In finding for the defendant McIntosh, the court ruled that the nature of Indian title is such that Indians can only transfer title to the federal government.

In Australia the Europeans took over all the land that the Aboriginals had owned for over 40,000 years. They had lost their livelihood, living in dumps and small humpies, no where near a safe or healthy environment. The indigenous people were treated very inhumanely; being told where they can go, where they can’t go and who they can have relationships with. Of course they grew extremely angry and something drastic needed to

This paper will give an overview of the act and how it impacted the Indigenous community into becoming

After 1788 Aboriginals became outcasts to their own lands. The European settlers tried to change and destroy Indigenous ways of life, however they did not succeed. Aboriginals survived and tried to fight back for their rights to their land. There are many stories in this long fight for justice. Charles Perkins and the Freedom Ride is one of the most famous stories in Australia’s history.

Hugh Henry Brackenridge did not care much for the Indians. In his article, he referred to them as “animals, vulgarly called Indians” (Brackenridge, 185). Indians claimed their land by “occupancy” (Brackenridge, 185). One Indian would set foot on a piece of land so he believed that that area of land belonged to him. When another Indian set foot on that same piece of land, the first Indian asked him to leave because he had already claimed that land.

Aboriginal rights have been enforced, everyone has equal rights, no matter who they are, and most importantly it confirmed the independence

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.