Mabo, Wik and Native Title? I don't understand it honestly
I totally understand, I was really confused about this when I first learnt it too! Let me try and lay out the content for you:
Mabo is the general term used to talk the Merian peoples' (a Indigenous group in the Murray Islands) fight to have their traditional land rights recognised by the Australian government, which was led by a man named Eddie Mabo.
So in 1992 = The High Court decided that the Merian people continued to have traditional rights to possess and live on most lands of Mer
first recognition of traditional land rights. So this was awesome because it was the legal rejection of 'terra nullius' which is a major deal in terms of the Land Rights Movement.
Then in 1993 = The Australian Parliament passed the Native Title Act 1993. This basically said that Indigenous people could claim traditional rights however this can’t prevail over freehold title (so it wasn't completely awesome).
Wik is the general term used to talk about the Wik peoples' (an Aboriginal group in Cape York, QLD) fight to have their native title rights recognised and they argued that pastoral leases (farming etc.) didn't extinguish their traditional ownership.
argued that pastoral leases didn’t extinguish native title rights
So in 1996 = The High Court judged that Native Title could co-exist with pastoral leases, however pastoralists rights prevailed
But the Australian government began amending the Native Title Act, leading to Howard’s Ten Point Plan
Then in 1998 = Native Title Amendment Act 1998 was passed which abolished the right of Native Title claimants to negotiate for government owned land and this was replaced with the right to be consulted only. This was a massive step back in the Land Rights Movement and even breached the Racial Discrimination Act 1975.
Native Title is a legal term given by the High Court of Australia to Indigenous Property Rights. It was first handed down in the Mabo decision of 1992. 'Native Title' only legally exists where continuous connection with the land has been maintained (which can be extremely hard to prove, especially for some Indigenous people who don't have physical records of their ancestors). So that means that only 3-4% of Indigenous population can even attempt to claim land rights.
Let me know if I haven't actually answered your question, but hopefully this helps
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