Land Rights in Australia

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This essay is about the land rights of of Australia and how Eddie Marbo was not happy about his land been taken away from him. In May 1982 Eddie Marbo and four other people of the Murray Islands began to take action in the high court of Australia and confirming their land rights. Eddie Marbo was a torres islander who thought that the Australian laws were wrong and who went to fight and try and change them. He was born in 1936 on Mer which is known as Murray Island. The British Crown in the form of the colony of Queensland became of the sovereign of the islands when they were annexed in1978. They claimed continued enjoyment of there land rights and that had not been validly extinguished by the sovereign. (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2012) The Marbo decision is about trying to get the land back from the government. Eddie Marbo was not happy about the how the government took indigenous land away from indigenous people and he did not think is was fair for them to take there land away from them . He was not happy because himself and his people have been living there for a for a long time and he does not want the government to own his land. The decision struck down the doctrine that Australia was terra nullius. The high court judgment found that native titles rights survived settlement, though subject to the sovereignty of the crown. The only party can loose in a native title claim is the indigenous claimant. (Mabo v Queensland 2013) Marbo was not happy when they took his land illegally and he thought he has his rights to go and fight to get the land back and he did not find it fair at all and he thought it was wrong. It was not fair when all the white people went and took away children from there parents and it was not fair... ... middle of paper ... ...t moment for the Australian history and governments history. It was a good thing that happened too because if they said no to Marbo and gave the land to the miners the land would be dug up and destroyed and it would not have been nice for the indigenous peoples land to be dug up and it would not be fair to them either. The Mabo decision was influential in engendering a new national narrative focused on inclusivity, the correction of past injustices and the will make and improve the lives of all Australians regardless of the cultural and historical differences. What my opinion on Eddie Marbo and what he did for the Australian Ingenuous people is that I recon he did very well getting the ingenuous rights through the government and I also recon he is a legend for Australia and standing up to government and he changed history for Australia and he should be remembered.

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