Mabo Day is a commemorative day that occurs annually on 3 June. It is an official holiday in the Torres Shire, and occurs during

National Reconciliation Week National Reconciliation Week is intended to celebrate Indigenous history and culture in Australia and foster reconciliation discussion and activities. It started as the Week of Prayer for Reconciliation in 1993, developing into National Reconcili ...

in Australia. CC-BY icon

Attribution 3.0 Australia (CC BY 3.0 AU)
licence. The date is the anniversary of the ''

Mabo v Queensland (No 2) ''Mabo v Queensland (No 2)'' (commonly known as ''Mabo'') is a decision of the High Court of Australia, decided on 3 June 1992.. It is a landmark case, brought by Eddie Mabo against the State of Queensland. The case is notable for first recog ...

'' decision by the

High Court of Australia The High Court of Australia is Australia's apex court. It exercises Original jurisdiction, original and appellate jurisdiction on matters specified within Constitution of Australia, Australia's Constitution. The High Court was established fol ...

, which recognised the pre-colonial land interests of

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

peoples within Australia's

common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...

. It commemorates Eddie Koiki Mabo (''c''. 29 June 1936–21 January 1992), a

Torres Strait Islander Torres Strait Islanders () are the Indigenous Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal people of the rest of Australia, they are often grouped ...

man whose campaign for

Indigenous land rights in Australia Indigenous land rights in Australia, also known as Aboriginal land rights in Australia, relate to the rights and interests in land of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia, and the term may also include the struggle for thos ...

led to the court's decision, which overturned the

legal fiction A legal fiction is a fact assumed or created by courts, which is then used in order to help reach a decision or to apply a legal rule. The concept is used almost exclusively in common law jurisdictions, particularly in England and Wales. Deve ...

of ''

terra nullius ''Terra nullius'' (, plural ''terrae nullius'') is a Latin expression meaning " nobody's land". It was a principle sometimes used in international law to justify claims that territory may be acquired by a state's occupation of it. : : ...

'' that had characterised Australian law with regard to land and title since the voyage of James Cook in 1770. In 2002, on the tenth anniversary of the High Court decision, Mabo's widow,

Bonita Mabo Ernestine Bonita Mabo (née Neehow) ( – 26 November 2018), was an Australian educator and activist for Aboriginal Australians, Torres Strait Islanders, and Australian South Sea Islanders. She was the wife of Eddie Mabo until his death in 199 ...

, called for a national public holiday on 3 June. On the eleventh anniversary, in 2003, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) launched a petition to make 3 June an Australian Public Holiday. Eddie Mabo Jnr, for the Mabo family, said: In 2010 a campaign was launched to make it a national holiday in Australia.

References

{{Reflist June observances Indigenous Australian politics