What happened
Eddie Mabo, a Meriam man from the Torres Strait, and others fought a long legal battle for traditional rights to the land of their islands.
Background
On 3 June 1992 the High Court found for Mabo, holding that native title could survive where Indigenous people had kept their traditional connection to the land. This overturned the long-standing doctrine that settlement had come to terra nullius, land belonging to no one.
Consequences
The following year, in 1993, the Native Title Act was passed in response to the ruling. The Mabo decision is regarded as a turning point in the history of Indigenous rights in Australia.