Forty-four years ago, Eddie Mabo stood in a lecture hall at James Cook University. He was usually on campus to work as a gardener, but that day he was explaining to the room how the land around the Torres Strait had been passed down, usually from father to son, for generations.
What was said in that lecture hall sparked four decades of native title claims across Australia – with more than 45% of the nation’s land now covered by some form of agreement.
