The Mabo Case Study Example

Due to its acknowledgments that Australia was not "terra nullius" (land belonging to no one) during the European colonization, the Mabo decision continues to have an impact on Indigenous Australian Civil Rights today.The high court first began to acknowledge in that Indigenous people had lived in Australia for thousands of years and had developed their own customs, laws, and methods of interacting with the land. Although the British considered the Indigenous Australians' way of life to be strange, they took care of the land and developed ways of surviving and caring for the land, which helped bring about the necessary change that acknowledged their rights to the land they traditionally own. This change was made possible by the Mabo case.

Australia's status as terra nullius was disproved during the Mabo case. The High Court acknowledged that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had a legal right to live in Australia during the period of British colonisation.It accepted that their home had been taken from them and that they had been deprived of fundamental human rights as a result, and it declared the idea that Australia was populated to be legal fiction. They realized that the fight for their land has been going on ever since colonization thanks to the Meriam people's battle with the Queensland government. This clarified the situation for indigenous Australians across the nation who were experiencing a similar problem, not only those on the Torres Strait Islands.

Indigenous Australians were acknowledged as the previous and traditional owners of the land for the first time in legal history thanks to the Mabo case. The government realized that although the native people had various practices that the British considered unusual, they were better at interacting with the land and had their own way of life, complete with conventions, laws, and traditions. Other injustices and violations of civil rights could potentially be handled and acknowledged as a result of this case's exposure in the media.

Although the Mabo case had a significant impact on the recognition of indigenous Australians' civil rights, I also think more could have been done and that the harm caused to the Aboriginal and Tora Strait Islander populations by Australia's recolonization was greater than the problem that was resolved. Indigenous Australians still contend with the problems that began with the British people today as a result of the loss of their identity, land, customs, and culture. The Mabo case was notable because it marked the first instance in which the people were legally granted access to their land as compensation for the harm they had suffered. Although we can't change what has been done in the past, I aspire to see a society where everyone has access to civil rights and we work together to discover ways to go forward.