Australia celebrates Mabo Day on June 03, 2023, which is so far an official holiday in Torres Shire.

Mabo Day commemorates a historic decision by the High Court of Australia in 1992 by which the assumption that Australia had been a terra nullus at the time when the European settlers came, was overturned. It was that assumption, a legal fiction that allowed the settlers to take away the land from the Aboriginals because a terra nullus is land that does not belong to anyone. Mabo Day got its name from Eddie Koiki Mabo, a man from Torres Strait Island who arose a campaign for Indigenous land rights. It is due to him and his campaign that Australian landmark law got changed to the benefit of Australian Indigenous people.

Links:
Commemorating Mabo Day

Torres Strait Islander and Mabo Day