The Mabo decision and the High Court

At the final hearing in the case of Mabo and Others v Queensland (No. 2) (1992), the full bench of the High Court of Australia recognised the prior claim of Indigenous Australians to the land that was claimed for England in the 18th century.

Edward Koiki Mabo’s role

One of the key figures in the Mabo case was Edward Koiki Mabo (1936–1992) of Mer (Murray) Island in the Torres Strait. Mabo had inherited land on Mer from his uncle. He later realised that the land could not belong to him because, after colonisation, it had been made ‘Crown land’ and therefore belonged to the state. Recognising this as profoundly unjust, Mabo and others from the Torres Strait sought to claim their right to their ancestral lands by taking their case to court.

A legacy preserved in the Library

The Papers of Edward Koiki Mabo were purchased from his widow, Bonita Mabo. The papers document many aspects of Mabo’s life, including:

• his involvement in family businesses and employment-creation ventures
• the establishment of the Black Community School in Townsville (the first institution of its kind in Australia)
• his interest and involvement in Indigenous arts, health, housing and education
• his support for Torres Strait Islander independence and self-determination.

A place in world history

In 2001, the Mabo Case Manuscripts were inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register, along with James Cook’s Endeavour journal. The papers of the leading plaintiff in the land rights case Edward Koiki Mabo, and those of his lawyer, Bryan Keon Cohen, were noted as documenting ‘an extremely rare instance in world history of pre-existing tribal law being formally recognised as superior to fundamental law of the “invading” culture, regardless of the economic and political implications’.