On 3 June 1992 the High Court of Australia handed down the Mabo decision on native title. Each year on 3 June Mabo Day celebrates the anniversary of this decision and Eddie Mabo's unshakeable belief that he owned his ancestral land.
The day is of such significance to the nation that I believe it should be proclaimed a public holiday. It could, perhaps, replace the Queen's Birthday public holiday. This would signify the development of our identity from the days of colonisation, where we relied on our close links with Britain, to today, where we seek to mature as a nation by owning the past and reconciling with Indigenous Australians.
The Mabo decision played a significant role in this process of maturation.
The transformation of our relations with the Indigenous peoples of Australia began in the late 1960s when historians began to investigate the record of relations between Aborigines and Europeans since 1788, and to integrate the Indigenous story into the telling of Australian history.
This revision of Australian history has had an important influence on Australian society. It represents colonisation as invasion, dispossession as theft, frontier conflict as war, the Indigenous response as resistance, the stealing of Indigenous children as genocide, and the lack of moral restraint as racism.
In the Mabo decision, the High Court determined that at the time of the British invasion in 1788, the Indigenous peoples owned the entire continent, including the Islands of Torres Strait. It acknowledged that Indigenous ownership of their traditional land survived the assumption of sovereignty by the British in 1788 and they were entitled to have their title protected under British law.
As the first plaintiff, the ruling bears Mabo's name. He was a traditional owner of land on the Island of Mer in eastern Torres Strait. In the 1960s, he left his homeland to work in Townsville. He was astonished to learn the Torres Strait Islands belonged to the Crown under Australian law.
In 1982, he and other Torres Strait Islanders took the Queensland Government to the High Court to verify their ownership.
In 1992, I was one of many non-Indigenous Australians who viewed the Mabo decision as a tidal wave of justice. The author of the lead judgement, Justice Gerard Brennan, stated that the High Court had entered a process of bringing Australian law into line with universal notions of human rights.
The decision addressed in some measure the violence, shame and racism of our founding story. The Native Title Act is our principal means of making amends for the dispossession of Indigenous Australians, and celebrating Mabo Day as a public holiday would be a recognition of our debt to them.
The most significant development in native title since Mabo occurred in the Wik decision of 1996. The High Court declared that native title rights can co-exist with leasehold title on pastoral leases. The ruling substantiated Indigenous peoples' right to access their lands to engage in customary activities.
As at 28 March 2011, there have been 143 native title determinations declared by the Federal Court of Australia, of which 104 were successful in whole or in part. Determinations of native title including Indigenous Land Use Agreements (ILUAs) cover 14 per cent of our landmass.
An ILUA is a voluntary agreement between a native title group and others about the use and management of traditional land and waters. They allow claimants to negotiate flexible agreements to suit particular circumstances.
In April 2011, the Australian Human Rights Commission announced the 500th ILUA since 1993 had been registered. ILUAs are legally binding and can develop into native title determinations.
The Mabo decision has transformed dealings between Indigenous peoples and government and has influenced government actions outside native title. In most states, there is a legislative framework for involving Indigenous people in ownership and joint management of national parks and other land of cultural significance to them.
Indigenous leaders describe positive native title determinations as a fillip to their peoples' self-esteem. They cite restitution of Indigenous peoples' right to camp on their land and to hunt, fish, gather plants and protect places of cultural significance as enhancing identity.
There has been considerable disparity in our relationship with Indigenous peoples since Federation in 1901, where Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders were not acknowledged as part of the new nation. Celebrating Mabo Day as a public holiday is one way to signify our respect for our Indigenous peoples as traditional owners of the continent.
Paul W Newbury writes on indigenous, environmental and sustainability issues. In 1999, he was editor and principal author of Aboriginal Heroes of the Resistance from Pemulwuy to Mabo published by the social justice organisation Action for World Development.