‘A tectonic shift in justice’: how the Wik people fought the law and won

Gladys Tybingoompa dances outside the high court in Canberra on 23 December 1996 following the Wik people’s native title win. A new documentary, Wik vs Queensland, revisits the land rights battle. Photograph: The Age/Fairfax Media via Getty Images

If you are going to meet Wik people in Aurukun you may well be directed to the mango tree outside an auntie’s house.

It was beneath the shade of this tree that the Wik people gathered and mobilised to fight their native title claims. Under trees, in tents, driving thousands of kilometres across dusty potholed landscape in rusty old cars to get to camps to try to find a collective voice. Elder Robert Holroyd would arrive on his tractor with his fierce dogs.