, Columnist
How the Legacy of a Civil Rights Hero Was Dismantled in Australia
It has been almost three decades since a landmark ruling overturned a doctrine that denied Indigenous land rights. Yet the work of Eddie Mabo and the activist movement he led is still being challenged.
A long road ahead.
Photographer: Anadolu Agency/Anadolu AgencyThis article is for subscribers only.
It took Australia two centuries to recognize that its first colonists didn’t arrive in a depopulated landscape. The aftershocks of that realization are still being felt.
This week marks 29 years since one of the most important cases in Australia’s legal history. Mabo v. Queensland (No. 2), brought by a group of Indigenous activists led by Eddie Mabo to secure their rights to Mer Island in the Torres Strait between Australia and New Guinea, rewrote the legal basis of land ownership in the country.