Editing Native title in Australia (section)

====1988–1992 – Mabo====
{{main|Mabo v Queensland (No 1)|Mabo v Queensland (No 2)}}

''[[Mabo v Queensland (No 2)]]'' (1992) was the foundational case for native title in Australia.<ref>{{cite book|last=Russel|first=Peter|title=Recognizing Aboriginal title: the Mabo case and Aboriginal resistance to English-settler colonialism|year=2005|publisher=University of Toronto Press}}</ref> In 1992 the rejection of native title in ''Milirrpum v Nabalco'' was overruled by the High Court in ''Mabo v Queensland (No 2)'',<ref name="Mabo #2 HCA">{{cite AustLII|HCA|23|1992|litigants=[[Mabo v Queensland (No 2)]] |parallelcite=(1992) 175 [[Commonwealth Law Reports|CLR]] 1 |date=3 June 1992 |courtname=[[High Court of Australia|High Court]]}}.</ref> which recognised the [[Meriam people]] of [[Murray Island, Queensland|Murray Island]] (Mer) in the [[Torres Strait Islands|Torres Strait]] as native title holders over part of their traditional lands. The Court rejected the notion that all Indigenous rights to land were abolished upon acquisition of sovereignty over Australia. The Court held that native title rights continued to exist, and that these rights existed by virtue of the continuing connection of Indigenous People to land, independent from a grant from the Crown. Native title would continue to exist as long as traditional laws and customs continue to be observed, unless the rights were otherwise extinguished by an incompatible grant by the Crown. Justice [[Gerard Brennan]] in this landmark decision stated:

<blockquote>However, when the tide of history has washed away any real acknowledgment of traditional law and any real observance of traditional customs, the foundation of native title has disappeared.<ref name="Mabo #2 HCA"/> Thus although over some parts of Australia native title has been lost, in large areas of the nation's interior, native title could be recognised.</blockquote>

As Justice Brennan stated in ''Mabo (No. 2)'', "native title has its origin and is given its content by the traditional laws acknowledged by and the customs observed by the Aboriginal inhabitants of a territory".<ref name="Mabo #2 HCA"/>