In 1981, a conference on land rights was held at James Cook University. Mabo made a speech to the audience where he explained the indigenous customary land inheritance system on Murray Island. One of the people who attended the conference, a lawyer, suggested they should make a case to claim land rights through the court system. A case was made, and took 10 years to reach a decision. Mabo died a few months before the decision. He died on 21 January 1992, of cancer at the age of 55.