15. Eddie Mabo Native Title

Truth Be Told Podcast - 3 Brothers Production · Jul 28, 2026 · 22m

In 1974, a gardener named Eddie Mabo was having lunch with two historians at James Cook University in Townsville when the conversation turned to his home — a small island called Mer, out in the Torres Strait. Mabo started talking about his family's land. The historians glanced at each other. They knew something he didn't. Under Australian law, that land wasn't his. It belonged to the Crown. His response was immediate. No way. It's not theirs. It's ours. That lunchtime conversation is, as much as any single moment can be, where the most significant land rights case in Australian history began…