A monumental judicial decision like Mabo exists on twolevels: one is the legal statement itself; the otheris the meaning it is given in public discourse andcultural memory (Russell 2005, 247). Mabo is one ofthose decisions whose political life and afterlifecontinues to be enormous and whose significance farexceeds its legal impact. The decision sparked anational debate about the relationships ofIndigenous and non-Indigenous Australians; it causeda ‘paradigm shift in thinking about […] identity’(Collins and Davis 2004, 78). Beyond Mabo's judicialimportance what has infiltrated the culturalimaginary of Australia is the communal nature ofentitlement to the land and the reality ofintersecting identities. It is this sea change inthe cultural imaginary which I am going to addressvia an examination of the two major movies aboutEddie Mabo, one from 1997 and one from 2012.

Commenting on the Mabo effect after 25 years, NoelPearson turned from the usual celebration of whatMabo affirmed to what Mabo denied: ‘to this day theAustralian nation has yet to embrace the truth andmeaning of Mabo’ (Pearson 2017). He emphasised thatthe judgement represented a collaboration based onthe intersection of native law and the imported lawof England: ‘I can think of no more redeeming mythfor our nation than this one: that it is the law ofEngland that provides the opportunity to put rightthe grievance of the dispossession of the originalowners from the homelands they held under their ownsovereign title since time immemorial’ (Pearson2017). The choice of vocabulary here is significant.Pearson uses the term ‘sovereign title’, a conceptexplicitly repudiated by the judges in the Mabodecision. This is indicative of how far politicalintervention by Aboriginal people has shifted sincethen. By calling Mabo an intersection of native andEnglish law, Pearson hints at a more radical andmore far-reaching interpretation of the Mabojudgement.

Pearson goes on to honour the memory of the historicalpersonage Eddie Mabo, stating that a quarter-centuryafter the Australiannewspaper made him its posthumous Australian of theYear, the Australian people had not embraced Mabo asthe national hero he truly is.