Legal landmark celebrated with free Mabo Day concert
By: LLOYD JONES
Mabo Day will be celebrated today with a free concert to mark the watershed legal decision paving the way for native land title claims across Australia.
A watershed moment in Australian history that paved the way for native land rights claims will be celebrated with a free concert on Mabo Day.
The day is marked annually on June 3 to honour the legacy of Torres Strait Islands man Eddie Koiki Mabo, who with five others launched a land rights claim in court in 1982.
Five months after his death aged 55, the High Court on June 3, 1992, recognised Mer Islanders had continuing rights to their land, paving the way for land rights claims across Australia.
Legal framework
The Mabo decision overturned the legal fiction of terra nullius, or “land belonging to no one”, a concept used by British settlers to justify their taking of land.
Following the Mabo decision, Federal parliament passed the Native Title Act 1993, which established a legal framework for native title claims by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
A free Mabo Day Celebration Concert is being held in Melbourne, hosted by the Koorie Heritage Trust in partnership with the City of Melbourne and Fed Square.
Holiday in far north Queensland
The concert features Torres Strait Islands and other performers including MC Leon Filewood, Kee’ahn, John Wayne Parsons + the Dukes, Jessie Lloyd, randals dad and Kerry Arabena.
Mabo Day falls on the last day of Reconciliation Week and is an official holiday in the Torres Shire in far north Queensland.
