Google Doodle features eminent Australian indigenous rights leader

On what would have been Eddie Mabo's 80th birthday, Google Australia has featured the Australian indigenous rights campaigner as Wednesday's Google Doodle.

Born in the Torres Strait Islands in northern Australia, Mabo's name is synonymous with the native title movement, which saw some indigenous Australians regain control of their ancestral lands.

In 1992, a legal suit, now known as the "Mabo Case," officially overturned the concept of terra nullius in the High Court of Australia. The idea that Australia was empty and belonged to no one when the British discovered it in 1770, terra nullius allowed European settlers to take the land with no regard for its original inhabitants.

Mabo claimed that the place of his birth, Mer, also known as Murray Island, had been continuously inhabited by its local people and British sovereignty had not extinguished their connection to the land. After the case, the government passed the Native Title Act in 1993, providing a path for other indigenous groups across the country to claim traditional rights to the land.

"Although he died shortly before the verdict, Eddie Mabo’s activism changed the lives of so many," Google Australia wrote in a blog post. "Edward Koiki Mabo was an energetic campaigner for the rights of indigenous people and their claim to the lands."

This is not the first time the Google Doodle has spotlighted an important indigenous story. On January 26, Australia Day, the Google Doodle featured artwork inspired by Australia's Stolen Generation. 

For many decades, the Australian government removed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their parents in an attempt to assimilate them into European communities and extinguish their indigenous identities.

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