Recognizing Aboriginal title

About this book

"A judicial revolution occurred in 1992 when Australia's highest court discarded a doctrine that had stood for two hundred years - that the country was a terra nullius (literally, a land of no one) when the white man arrived. The proceedings were known as the Mabo case, named for Eddie Koiki Mabo, the Torres Strait Islander who fought the notion that the Australian Aboriginal people did not have a system of land ownership before European colonization. The case had international repercussions, especially in the four countries in which English-speaking settlers formed the dominant population: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States." "In Recognizing Aboriginal Title, Peter H. Russell offers a comprehensive study of the Mabo case, its background, and its consequences, contextualizing it within the international struggle of Indigenous peoples to overcome their colonized status. Russell weaves together the story of Mabo's life with an examination of the legal and ideological foundations of European imperialism and their eventual challenge by the global forces of decolonization. He traces the development of Australian law and policy in relation to Aborigines, and provides a detailed account of the decade of litigation that led to the Mabo case."--Book jacket.