Murray Island, a tiny speck in the Coral Sea, on the northernmost fringe of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is one of the most beautiful and isolated places in Australia, if not the world. However, Murray Island, or Mer as it is called by the Merlam people, is the centre of a legal battle that questions the very basis of European settlement in Australia. Three Murray Islanders have taken the Queensland and Australian Governments to court claiming that islanders, not the State, own island land. They say that in Merlam law and custom their families had, since time immemorial, distinct rights to the land and to adjoining seabeds and reefs. Islanders argue that those rights continued after the island was annexed to the then British Colony of Queensland.
How to watch
Collection
In ACMI's collection
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
324722
Language
English
Audience classification
Exempt
Subject categories
Aboriginal Australia → Aboriginal Australians - Civil rights
Aboriginal Australia → Aboriginal Australians - Land tenure
Aboriginal Australia → Native title (Australia)
Anthropology, Ethnology, Exploration & Travel → Murray Islands (Qld.)
Documentary
Documentary → Documentary films - Australia
Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Native title (Australia)
History → Australia - History - 1965-
History → Australia - History - 1976-1990
People → Mabo, Eddie, 1936-1992
Places → Murray Islands (Qld.)
Short films
Short films → Short films - Australia
Sound/audio
Sound
Colour
Colour
Holdings
VHS; Access Print (Section 1)