Mabo Day celebration

Mabo Day commemorates the 25th anniversary of the Mabo decision which was a landmark case in which Eddie Koiki Mabo (Meriam) challenged the notion of ‘Terra Nullius’; that Australia was a ‘land belonging to no one’, in the High Court of Australia. His victory, and the resulting decision, recognised Native Title rights for Indigenous people in Australia for the first time since colonisation. On 3 June 1992, it was ruled that the Meriam people of the Murray Islands were entitled to the possession, occupation, use and end enjoyment of (most) of the Murray Islands, setting a precedent for native title cases throughout Australia.