Tasmanian Aboriginal elder Rodney Dillon was once fined $2,000 for taking abalone from Tasmanian waters.
He tried to argue in court he had native title rights and said he would not be forced into buying a licence for what he saw as a cultural practice.
Two decades on, Indigenous Tasmanians finally have the right to fish for the delicacy commercially.
With the flourish of a pen, history has been made with the signing of the deal yesterday on Bruny Island, off the south-east coast of Tasmania.
The ground-breaking deal will provide Tasmanian Aboriginal people with access to a commercial abalone fishery.
Mr Dillon who heads the Land and Sea Aboriginal Corporation of Tasmania said abalone fishing was an important cultural link to the past.
"This is an ancient food, and it's an ancient history," Mr Dillon said.
"The importance of it, is this was taken away from us for many years, and we weren't part of it.
"It became too expensive and it became too hard for us to get into this industry."
The contract will formally establish a cultural abalone fishery and is seen as a step towards Indigenous people taking back ownership of the sea.
Tasmania's report on a pathway to truth-telling and treaty, released late last year, recommended changes to provide sea rights to Tasmanian Indigenous people, including by investing in commercial cultural fisheries.
Instead of going to tender, the state government has handed over a portion of Tasmania's catch allocation to create a cultural fishery in a three-year deal.
It allows for the fishing of 40 units, or quotas, worth nine tonnes this year alone.
Primary Industry Minister Guy Barnett said it would generate nine new jobs for Indigenous Tasmanians.
But Joe Morrison from the national Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation said it represented so much more.
"I think it's a signal that Australia is maturing to the point where we are seeing more and more of these rights being given to Indigenous people and we've seen that in other parts of the country."
Associate Professor of Indigenous leadership Emma Lee, from Swinburne University, said the agreement was also about resetting the relationship between Indigenous and other Tasmanians.
"I'm so proud, that this a not only a historic deal, but a deal that makes sense on a national, local, federal level."
It is hoped the agreement will also deliver social benefits, including encouraging young Aboriginal people into careers in fisheries and delivering more local abalone on dinner tables.
"We're going to create a cradle-to-grave sea country program so we can get people connected, so they can see a future for themselves in jobs and culture, and just belonging," Dr Lee said.
She said women would have a key role.
"In Tasmania, women are of the sea, men are of the land and everyone's from night sky country, so we've got a real opportunity here to have women in leadership in fisheries."
