This was apartheid in Australia, not South Africa. Reynolds struck up a friendship with Eddie Mabo, who was then a groundsman and gardener at James Cook University. They reflect the period in which they were created and are not the views of the National Archives. The tools to guide us with a new conversation with Government around the full realization of our rights in relation to land and native title can be found in the UN Declarations on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Right to Development. In conversations with Commissioner Wilson and others, we are in the midst of developing what the next step in this process should look like and we will continue to engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples such as yourselves in order to do this. "Quite simply, Eddie Mabo brought an end to a two-centuries-old lie," says Rachel Perkins, director and inspiration behind the new movie, Mabo, released to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the historic High Court case. Two generations talk about the impact of the 1967 Referendum and the 1992 Mabo Decision . It is sadness beyond the word sadness itself. Mabo expressed disbelief and shock. 2008 Presentation by The Hon. Watch all your favourite ABC programs on ABC iview. But despite the success of the '67 campaign, in 1972 Eddie Mabo still had to get permission from the Queensland authorities to visit his dying father on Mer Island. But who was Eddie Mabo, why did he take up what must have seemed like a hopeless cause and what is the legacy of his campaign? Mabo, Edward Koiki (Eddie) (1936-1992) . Typical of such awards, the citations are generally understated and this is particularly so in your case. Court cases in the mid-19th century challenged the idea of British settlement at the time the rulings were in favour of the Crown. Eddie Mabo would not live to see his final victory, but in that judgement he became immortal. 2009 Presentation by Professor Ross Garnaut, Vice-Chancellor's Fellow and Professorial Fellow in Economics, The University of Melbourne, and Distinguished Professor, The Australian University. Edward Koiki Mabo was born on 29 June 1936. I had read about the case as it moved through the lower courts. This led to the subsequent High Court case, Mabo v Queensland (No 2), which was to determine the matter of the plaintiffs' land rights. Help your class to explore the life of Eddie Mabo with this engaging and educational biography-writing task. We know sadness. That permission was denied. I hope that youll share with me the need to move this conversation forward, in order to best realise our rights under native title and the benefits that should follow from that. We pay our respects to the people, their cultures and Elders past, present and emerging. British law under a British flag. "Koiki was ambitious for himself and for his people." As much as Australias law tried to tell him he was wrong, he knew his law and he knew that even the law of Britain that had stolen this land had to admit finally admit what we all knew, what Eddie Mabo knew. Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders in Marine Science, Agriculture Technology and Adoption Centre, Association of Australian University Secretaries, Australian Quantum & Classical Transport Physics Group, Centre for Tropical Bioinformatics and Molecular Biology, Division of Tropical Environments and Societies, Foundation for Australian Literary Studies, IERC Administration and Centre Operations, Torres Strait Islander Research to Policy & Practice Hub, Meriba buay ngalpan wakaythoemamay (We come together to share our thinking), Knowledge Integration for Torres Strait Sustainability: Sey boey wara goeygil nabi yangukudupa, Office of the Vice Chancellor and President, Queensland Research Centre for Peripheral Vascular Disease, Contextual Science for Tropical Coastal Ecosystems, Australian Institute of Tropical Health & Medicine, Recognition, national identity and our future. In 1959, he moved to mainland Queensland, working on pearling vessels and as a labourer. Meriam history and culture were crucial to the success of the Mabo case. JCU celebrates the history-making Mabo decision with the long establishedEddie Koiki Mabo Lecture Series, an annual public commemorative presentation by a prominent person who has made a significant contribution to contemporary Australian society. (2010 lecture transcript). Born on 29 June 1936 in his village of Las on the island of Mer in the Torres Strait, Eddie Koiki Mabo was the fourth child of Robert Zesou Sambo and Poipe (Sambo) Mabo. He knew about suffering. Transcript ID: 3849. In particular, Roundtable participants lamented the lack of governance skills amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander landholders to successfully engage in business development and to manage their estates. Edward Koiki Mabo ( n Sambo; 29 June 1936 - 21 January 1992) was an Indigenous Australian man from the Torres Strait Islands known for his role in campaigning for Indigenous land rights in Australia, in particular the landmark decision of the High Court of Australia that recognised that indigenous rights to land had continued after the British But alongside . Can I also acknowledge all you here today who have come together to work out how we can access our land, seas and waters easier and quicker, but who have also come to talk to each other about how we can make better use of our estates to make life a little better for the rest of our mob out there. Eddie Mabo at James Cook University, early 1980s Series 8. He also co-operated with members of the Communist Party, the only white political party to support Aboriginal campaigns at the time. Bonita 'Netta' Mabo: Eddie's wife and is a resourceful, supportive and loving woman. (2013 lecture transcript), 2012 Presentation by Professor Henry Reynolds. For significant service to the community as a cultural leader and public sector executive in the field of Indigenous affairs.. He is best known for the two court cases that bear his name, Mabo v. Queensland (numbers 1 and 2). In his book Why Weren't We Told?, Reynolds describes the talks they had regarding Mabo's people's rights to their lands, on Murray Island, in the Torres Strait. Some key principles underpinning this right are: This Declaration centralizes the role of both the individual and government in the development process, arguing for the State to create national policies to properly ensure the development of all individuals. We will adapt, we will take advantage of these opportunities and we will leave a great legacy. He petitioned, campaigned, cajoled and questioned Terra Nullius for 18 years. About 800 kilometers north of Cairns sits the small remote community of Mer (Murray) Island in the crystal blue waters of the Torres Strait. It is a feeling. [2] Australian Human Rights Commission, Paper on Indigenous Leaders Roundtable, Property Rights, p4. In 1994 the Torres Strait Regional Authority (TSRA) was established in response to Read More His mother passed away shortly after his birth and he was adopted by his maternal Uncle and Aunt, Benny and Maiga Mabo in line with Islander . Truth. This is our land. B12 of 1982 in the High Court of Australia). What did Eddie Mabo say in his speech? A human rights based approach has been a key part of advocacy of all Social Justice Commissioners. Mabo was a Torres Strait islander from Mer (Murray Island), off Australia's north-east coast. And he was right. eddie began his Journey on changing the rights by Making a speech at a land rights conference at the James Cook University his speech explained the traditional land owners and the inheritance system that . The Declaration incorporates four fundamental human rights principles that can be categorised as: However, the UN Declaration on the Right to Development has been a lesser-known cousin to the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. However, the social justice package, which was meant to address compensation for the dispossession of land and the dispersal of the Indigenous population remains unfulfilled.[4]. "Koiki was ambitious for himself and for his people.". The Murray Islands Mabo v Queensland (No 2) (commonly known as the Mabo case or simply Mabo) is a landmark decision of the High Court of Australia that recognised the existence of Native Title in Australia. Following his speech, he was approached by a lawyer, who asked if he'd be interested in taking the Australian Government to court to finally decide who owned the land. The Roundtable was held after there was significant interest on this issue when Commissioner Wilson and I undertook some consultations around the country last year. For the love of his family and tradition, he fights for his land on Murray Island. In some ways our systems of governance is a defining feature of the oldest living culture on this planet. In 1981, Eddie Mabo made a speech at James Cook University in Queensland, where he explained his people's beliefs about the ownership and inheritance of land on Mer. We acknowledge Aboriginal People and Torres Strait Islander People as the first inhabitants of the nation, and acknowledge Traditional Custodians of the Australian lands where our staff and students live, learn and work. As the Broome Roundtable highlighted, this remains one of the key unresolved issues facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their quest for ongoing economic development. Australian law for two centuries hid the truth behind words. This is yet another reason why a development approach is so urgently needed. Audio file Transcript About this record This is the soundtrack of an address to the nation on 15 November 1993 by the then Prime Minister Paul Keating, explaining the Australian Government's response to the High Court's Mabo decision. On November 16, 1990, after a year of considering the facts of the case, Justice Moynihan delivered his written findings to the High Court of Australia. In 2008, a library at James Cook University was named after him. It clearly did not, for instance, lead to vast numbers of white Australians being forced from their homes, businesses, mines or farms. Overwhelmingly, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have indicated that it is time for a new process of engagement to occur with the government on the topic of our rights after native title. It remains a collection of canvas and tin, but it has grown in those years since a handful of young Aboriginal activists planted a beach umbrella and wrote the word Embassy on a manila folder, to shake a fist at the power on the hill. They can raise us to anger then soothe us. This is our land. Mabo Day is an official holiday in the Torres Shire, celebrated on 3 June. The judge's four hundred page report presented Mabo and his barristers with a bombshell which threatened to sink their case. Make an Impact. Eddie Koiki Mabo Lecture Series. In my tribute to Rob, I mentioned how losing that fight for national land rights lit the fires for what was to become the fight for native title led by Eddie, with Rob being part of the leadership that negotiated the Native Title Act through the national parliament to give legislative effect to the High Court decision championed by Eddie. The nation remained diminished. Participants in Broome identified there was a real need to have a new conversation with Government around Indigenous land and property rights and how this might translate into sustainable economic development. To strengthen our democracy as Eddie Mabo strengthened our law. They both endured early hard lives that steeled them for the struggles that would eventually come their way. This issue of transfer, usability and conversion of title threw up many challenges around how to retain underlying customary title but make it usable in the modern sense. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice, Copyright Australian Human Rights Commission, http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/JlIndigP/2014/33.pdf, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/property-rights-will-help-economic-development-of-indigenous-australians/story-e6frg6z6-1227365821530, https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/document/publication/social_justice_native_title_report_2013.pdf, http://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/native-title-report-2008, http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Development/Pages/RealizingaVisionforTransformativeDevelopment.aspx, http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/ALRCRefJl/2009/15.html#FootnoteB6, http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/table-1-human-development-index-and-its-components#a, http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/264/hdr_2003_en_complete.pdf. This activity encourages children to write down their knowledge in a structured report . Promoting Indigenous peoples right to development. On 3 June 1992, six of seven Australian High Court judges ruled: The Meriam people are entitled as against the whole world to possession, occupation, use and enjoyment of the lands of the Murray Islands [in Torres Strait]. I have been honoured in the last six weeks by being asked to deliver both the Eddie Koiki Mabo Lecture here today and the Rob Riley Memorial Lecture on Friday the 8 th of May in Perth. These organisations could assist in under-writing costs, insurance and risk as well as helping explore options for Indigenous specific loan products. Words. That is the view most widely endorsed by history. The remarkable life story of Eddie 'Koiki' Mabo; a Torres Strait Islander who left school at the age of 15, yet spearheaded the High Court challenge that overthrew the fiction of terra nullius. (No. [1] It was brought by Eddie Mabo against the State of Queensland and decided on 3 June 1992. Ten years later, he conceded his fears were unfounded. The fall of the golden house of is but not the end. The truth: This was his land. We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future.. It was on 3 June 1992 that the Australian High Court overturned more than 200 years of white domination of land ownership. People gathered this week in Townsville, Queensland, to remember a seminal moment in the nation's history, and the efforts of one man to bring it about. In one, the presiding judge said the mere introduction of British law did not extinguish Aboriginal customary law. The preamble to the Native Title Act makes it clear that the objectives of the legislation are to: rectify the consequences of past injustices by the special measures contained in the Act to ensure that Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders receive the full recognition and status within the Australian nation to which history, their prior rights and interests, and their rich and diverse culture, fully entitle them to aspire.[11]. He knew about suffering. At: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/property-rights-will-help-economic-development-of-indigenous-australians/story-e6frg6z6-1227365821530 (viewed 3 June 2015), [4] T Calma, Native Title Report 2005, Australian Human Rights Commission, 2005, p82. The issue of compensation for unfinished business was another key theme of the Roundtable. Our landsings gently a song of sadness. The Mabo decision was named after Eddie Mabo, the It is clear that the current system has not delivered what had initially been intended to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. You Murray Islanders have won that court case. However, whilst the right to development is about improvements in economic and material outcomes, it is also about our rights as Indigenous peoples to self-determination and our rights to control our natural wealth and resources. Realising these aspirations, is key to our economic development and prosperity as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples where our land is our ultimate asset. Les Malezer, chairman of the Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action, is critical of the native title system for its failure to deliver for indigenous people. (2014 lecture transcript), 2013 Presentation by Dr Bryan Keon-Cohen QC. Yet, the first colonialists decided, for commercial reasons, to ignore all that and peddle the view that Aboriginal people were primitive, disorganised, culture-less creatures who deserved no rights over land. He was another victim of Terra Nullius, like so many of his fellow indigenous people had been before him. First, they ask me to pass on their greetings and their thanks for allowing me on your lands. However, it also raised equally relevant issues around the many state and local government land taxes and rates that apply once conversion has taken place. To make agreements. This our ancestors did, according to the reckoning of our culture, from the Creation, according to the common law from "time immemorial", and according to science more than 60,000 years ago. Mr Mabo died in 1992 just months before his 10-year legal battle for native title rights proved successful. It is this issue of development that I will explore later in greater detail. When our world is ablaze with conflict. We leave base camp and start our trek across this vast country. The High Court is the highest court in Australia's judicial system. However, most importantly of all, we are now faced with the challenge of how to make the most of our rights to land and native title once we have them, for our prosperity and sustainability. What is this Eddie Mabo Biography Worksheet? 2. Financing economic development within the Indigenous estate. It was during a stint as a gardener at the James Cook University at Townsville in Queensland, that his eyes were opened to the greatest injustice his people had ever been subjected to. This needs to change. I walked into the news meeting at the ABC with words. My predecessor Dr Tom Calma explained the impact of never implementing a social justice package in 2008: this abyss is one of the underlying reasons why the native title system is under the strain it is under today[5]. The court dismissed his challenge to Australian sovereignty, but in his opinion Justice Lionel Murphy rattled the bones of the Australian settlement. " [7] OHCHR Website, Essays in Commemoration of 25 years of the United Nations Declaration on the Right to Development. There was something of destiny in the air. The Roundtable included a diverse range of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, with nearly 50 people in total from as far and wide as the Torres Straits, the Gulf of Carpentaria, Cape York, Sydney, the Kimberley and Darwin. Mabo v Queensland (No 1) was heard in 1986and 1988. This link is the basis of the ownership of the soil, or better, of sovereignty., "This is the torment of our powerlessness.". It was through his association with JCU humanities and education staff, Professor Henry Reynolds and Associate Professor Noel Loos, that Eddie became interested in who owned the land on which his people lived, and in Native Title.
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