This is the story of five different First Nations groups, a vast area of sea and an unprecedented legal outcome.
It is the story of traditional owners taking back control and a decades' long journey come full circle.
"This is a continuation of what Uncle Eddie started all those years ago," Ned David, chair of Gur A Baradharaw Kod Torres Strait Sea and Land Council, tells ABC RN's Law Report.
Back in 1992, Eddie Mabo, who lived on the Mer Island in the Torres Strait, was the lead plaintiff in the historic native High Court of Australia decision that recognised native title over the land.
Now, in a landmark Federal Court determination, the traditional owners of Mer Island and other First Nations peoples in the Torres Strait region have won native title over the sea.
"Everyone knows that, sadly, the [Mabo] decision came after [Eddie Mabo] passed.
"And you know his famous words, 'all the resources, all the fishes in the sea belongs to me and my people'.
"We're basically now delivering on those prophetic words," David says.
'Western law has finally caught up'
Mainland Aboriginal groups the Ankamuthi and Gudang Yadhaykenu, and the Kaurareg, Kulkalgal and Kemer Kemer Meriam people of the Torres Strait now have native title over parts of the Torres Strait, the Coral Sea and the Gulf of Carpentaria.
"This is one of those once-in-a-lifetime things … words fail me," David says.
"Western law has finally caught up to and is recognising what's been around for a very long time."
That is, an Indigenous connection to the ocean that is as meaningful as to the land.
"It's never happened before … where Torres Strait Islanders and Aboriginal brothers and sisters have got a consent determination, recognising combined groups' rights and interests in the waters," David says.
"We're reconnecting amongst ourselves."
Depth of knowledge 'hard for outsiders to comprehend'
In December 2022, the Federal Court approved a settlement reached between five First Nations groups, and the Queensland and Federal governments, that recognised native title over 40,000 square kilometres of Torres Strait sea country.
It is the first time a native title claim has brought together Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians to achieve joint native title outcomes.
The evidence submitted was so compelling, the native title claim was accepted without the need for a trial.
"I've never seen … such a treasure trove of material," says Justice Deborah Mortimer of the Federal Court of Australia, who handed down the determination.
She was struck by a connection to and understanding of the sea country; by the way the First Nations people who submitted evidence for the claim "talked about the waves crashing on the Great Barrier Reef and the sound they heard after that, the way they could navigate at night with the stars, the way they knew one reef from another reef".
"The depth of knowledge is something I think that it's hard for outsiders to comprehend," she says.
Mer Island artist Segar Passi demonstrates this knowledge in his art, for example depicting cloud that "looks like the stern of a ship". He explains that in the Meriam language it's called "stima kor kor", and that it always appears in December. "When we see this cloud pointing towards the west, it tells us that the wind will soon be coming from the west," he says.
Songs show 'who we are'
Traditional singing was crucial among the evidence in the native title case.
In his witness statement, Kapua George Gutchen, an elder from Erub Island, sang a song about "podagad", the short, choppy, rough seas in the middle of a channel.
"It's talking about the turbulent, boisterous sea, giving praise to … the white wave caps [which are like] flowers when it becomes rough," Gutchen says.
"Tudusi" means to become angry, he explains.
Fallen Passi, a native title holder on Mer Island, cherishes a song composed by his late brother.
"[It means] the big ocean. From the depth of the ocean, when it's come to break on the reef. It's formed from the outside and is that we call 'aubakkuli'."
Betty Tikkahika, Eddie Mabo's eldest daughter and a proud Mer Island woman, has composed many songs about the ocean that surrounds her, including one she wrote for a departing family member.
"I'm looking over across the ocean [thinking], see you later my friend. I'm waving and the wave is bouncing high [in the] sky on the reef. So 'zaubr' is the wave, and I feel sad for you, my friend, you're going away."
Enid Tom is an elder of the Kaurareg nation and director of the Kaurareg Native Title Aboriginal Corporation.
At the celebration of the native title determination, she sang a song she says "identifies who we are and where we come from".
"It's about someone walking around and looking at the sea and saying, this is my land," she says.
"This is my sea."
The songs demonstrate a deep understanding of the whole environment.
"[The First Nations people of the Torres Strait] understand the seasons and the birds that go with those seasons, the resources of the sea, where to find them. They understand about limiting their hunting for sustainability reasons," Justice Mortimer says.
"They are the first and pre-eminent protectors of our environment, and they need to be recognised for that."
First nations people 'back in control'
Justice Mortimer says this is a "landmark" native title agreement "because of the unity that's been shown".
"People are more powerful together, and the groups that have come together … will have a significant amount of power in this region. And that is long overdue.
"I've heard it from many of the native title holders themselves, they feel like they will be back in control of their country, having lost it through a process of colonisation. And now they feel that they will be on an equal footing in negotiating with, whether it's fishing operators or tourism operators, they will be at the table, officially."
Like Ned David, Fallen Passi regards the recognition of native title over the sea country as the completion of Eddie Mabo's dream.
"What Koiki Mabo was saying [was that] the prawn, the cray, the 'trochas' (snails) belong to me and my people. So we don't talk about the water. We talk about the reef and the sea floor. What's there is belong to us.
"If the coral is born on the reef, on the ocean, and we born on the land, so we all related, if we call ourself a traditional owner."
Importantly, the determination also confirms native title rights over the Great Barrier Reef.
"My clients and the Torres Strait Islanders have provided significant evidence of connection to the barrier since before time, canoe time, where their ancestors have occupied and used the Great Barrier Reef and the islands and reefs in the area of the Great Barrier Reef for many thousands of years," says Graham Carter, a barrister and counsel for the native title claimants.
Kapua George Gutchen describes the Great Barrier Reef as a "highway".
"A highway of travel, yeah. That's how we get about.
"[We know] when it's dangerous to go out and when it's not so bad.
"That's the knowledge we've got from before, ancestor time."
Brian Williams, a traditional owner from Ugar Island, also sees the Great Barrier Reef as a "sea highway".
"Within the Barrier we've got a name, we call it 'Goli Goli', which means the Black Sea, and you've got 'ad-nor', which goes outside of the Barrier," he says.
"So they used the inner side to go down and at night they'll come back on the outside of the Barrier."
Their travel guide? The "zaggur", or phosphorus light "that greens up in the sea".
"I remember coming from Raine Island with my dad, and we were on a boat called a 'kasham', and as we were going, we were only about 500 meters off the reef, you could see this pathway of green light just going for miles along the reef, because when the breaker, the wave, hits the reef, it stirs up that green light.
"You can see it go for miles and you can never get lost. It just takes you all the way.
"And when you come at daybreak, up towards Meb-Geuar reef, you can see Murray Island clear and it's picture perfect.
"You can't go any other way."
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