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What is Mabo Day and why is it significant?
For more than 200 years, the Australian governments acted under the presumption that Australia belonged to no-one before colonisation.
WARNING: This story contains images of Indigenous people who have died.
- Sarah Motherwell
- ABC
That legal concept, known as “terra nullius”, stripped Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of their traditional rights to their lands and attempted to sever connections to cultures dating back 65,000 years.
June 3 marks the momentous victory to overturn that precedent in the High Court and honours the legacy of the man behind it — Eddie Mabo.
Here’s what you need to know about Mabo Day.
Who was Eddie Mabo?
Eddie Koiki Sambo…