Indigenous Australians Civil Rights Movement

Mabo Decision

Jun 3, 1992

Mabo Day occurs annually on 3 June. It commemorates Eddie Koiki Mabo (c. 29 June 1936–21 January 1992), a Torres Strait Islander whose campaign for Indigenous land rights led to a landmark decision of the High Court of Australia that, on 3 June 1992, overturned the legal fiction of terra nullius that had characterised Australian law with regards to land and title since the voyage of James Cook in 1770.