"The golden house of is collapses. Eddie Mabo was a Torres Strait Islander activist. Eddie Koiki Mabo and the Mabo Case | naa.gov.au Volume 1 (227pp), Volume 2 (58pp). Eddie Mabo - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 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]. Winanghanha is to return to knowing: to know what we have always known. Eddie Mabo at James Cook University, early 1980s Series 8. 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. In 1994 the Torres Strait Regional Authority (TSRA) was established in response to Read More This is an edited extract of the 2022 Mabo Lecture, delivered by Stan Grant on June 3, 2022, to commemorate 30 years since the Mabo decision. Bibliography - History bibliographies - Cite This For Me 2008 Presentation by The Hon. 1301.0 - Year Book Australia, 1995 - Australian Bureau of Statistics Other forms of recognition have been added. 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. It was suggested that we, as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, needed to think outside of the box when it comes to this issue. Eddie Mabo was a great hero to the Australian people. For Indigenous peoples around the world, the Declaration has been a means by which they can free themselves from the shackles of colonialism and share equitably in the benefits of development.[8]. . 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. I had read about the case as it moved through the lower courts. Friendship with Eddie Mabo. : he world to possession and I emfphasise Opossessions Land claim, 1981-1992 In 1981, at a conference on indigenous land rights in Townsville, a decision was made to pursue a native land title claim for the people of the Murray Islands in the High Court of Australia. Typical of such awards, the citations are generally understated and this is particularly so in your case. His mother passed away shortly after his birth and he was adopted by his Uncle Benny and Aunty Maigo Mabo in line with Islander custom. The practical effects of Mabo have, indeed, been mixed, judging by figures from the Koori Mail, a national indigenous-owned newspaper. "The rights he won in the High Court have been eroded away by government, courts and socio-economic pressure.". To strengthen our democracy as Eddie Mabo strengthened our law. Mabo, Edward Koiki (Eddie) (1936-1992) . In New South Wales, the most populous state, Aboriginal people have title over only 0.1% of the land. I have heard many stories from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and Traditional Owners about the many barriers they face in reaching their potential benefits under land rights and native title. At the 1981 James Cook University Land Rights Conference Eddie Mabo made a passionate speech about land ownership and ancestral inheritance in the Murray Islands. 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. 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. Then, in June 1992, the years of sacrifice and persuasion came to fruition. The Mabo decision What is the Mabo decision? Mabo Day & Native Title: Who was Eddie Mabo & what is his legacy? Edward 'Koiki' Mabo (1936-1992), Torres Strait Islander community leader and land rights campaigner, was born on 29 June 1936 at Las, on Mer, in the Murray group of islands, Queensland, the fourth surviving child of Murray Islands-born parents 'Robert' Zesou Sambo, seaman, and his wife 'Annie' Poipe, ne Mabo. 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. So, in many ways, the victory has been more symbolic than practical. the Aborigines did not give up their lands peacefully; they were killed or removed forcibly from the lands by United Kingdom forces or the European colonists in what amounted to attempted (and in Tasmania almost complete) genocide.". He knew about hope and he knew about justice. Our people know han. Mabo ended up on the mainland working a number of jobs, including labouring on the railways. In 1992 the High Court handed down its historic ruling. Mabo (film) - Wikipedia In 1959, he moved to mainland Queensland, working on pearling vessels and as a labourer. I was there as a young associate working for a judge, and saw the jubilation and relief of . For the love of his family and tradition, he fights for his land on Murray Island. They reflect the period in which they were created and are not the views of the National Archives. Mabo expressed disbelief and shock. JCU websites use cookies to enhance user experience, analyse site usage, and assist with outreach and enrolment. Mabo and others: products or agents of progress? Those cases resulted in the acknowledgment that Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples had the right to claim the land they and their ancestors had lived on for thousands of years. During this time he enrolled as a student and studied teaching at the College of Advanced Education, which later amalgamated with JCU. Transcript of proceedings.in the High Court of Australia between Eddie Mabo, David Passi, James Rice.and the State of Queensland Proceedings for 28-31 May 1991, 3 June 1992, and 8 December 1992. This needs to change. A clear theme from the Broome Roundtable revealed a common frustration among many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. And these were the costs borne by the whole family. Top 10 Amazing Facts about Eddie Mabo - Discover Walks Blog Until Mabo, we had been a forgotten people, even though we knew that we were in the right.". And it was this; hardly any compensation has come our way despite all of the fear mongering over the years about the rivers of compensation that would flow from the realization of our rights under land rights and native title. About 800 kilometers north of Cairns sits the small remote community of Mer (Murray) Island in the crystal blue waters of the Torres Strait. 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. In acknowledging the traditional rights of the Meriam people to their land, the court also held that native title existed for all Indigenous people. On 21 May 2008, James Cook University named its Townsville campus library the Eddie Koiki Mabo Library. It is a feeling. To seek justice we had to speak the words of British law. Mabo v Queensland (No 2) - Wikipedia I believe that it is this framework that has the power to elevate the aspirations that we have as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in relation to land. And in some cases native title had become a millstone, almost drowning people in a sea of regulation, red tape and process without any semblance of necessary support. In 1982, Eddie Mabo and four others began action seeking a legal declaratcion of their traditional land rights in the Murray islands of the Torres Strait, Tvn years later onL 3 June 1992, the High Court decided that his people were entitled as against the whole of ! 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. He spoke of impermanence: He knew things did not last and yet we do. Mabo: Life of an Island Man is a 1997 Australian documentary film on the life of Indigenous Australian land rights campaigner Eddie Koiki Mabo.. But alongside . "For two centuries, the British and then white Australians operated under a fallacy, that somehow Aboriginal people did not exist or have land rights before the first settlers arrived in 1788.". The truth: This was his land. British law under a British flag. 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. It is clear that the current system has not delivered what had initially been intended to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The Keating government gave effect to the Mabo decision by introducing the Native Title Act 1993, which facilitated the process of recognising native title. We need to work alongside government to equip ourselves with the knowledge and skills to turn the economic and commercial aspirations into reality. In 1982, along with four other Meriam people from Murray Island, he initiated legal proceedings in the Queensland Supreme Court claiming customary ownership of their lands on Murray Island. This link is the basis of the ownership of the soil, or better, of sovereignty., "This is the torment of our powerlessness.". 5. The commitment to a land fund; and importantly, participation in decision-making underpinned by the concept of free, prior and informed consent and good faith. Mabo/The Man/Justice Moynihan's Findings active, free and meaningful participation in development; self-determination and full sovereignty over natural wealth and resources. Mabo's love for his homeland drove the proud Torres Strait Islander to undertake a 10- year legal battle that rewrote Australia's history. Transcript notes - MABO, Eddie, RICE, James v State of Queensland and Commonwealth of Australia, ITM1641344 The great polish poetCzeslawMilosz said perhaps all memory is the memory of wounds. I also acknowledge Meriam PBC Chair Mr Doug Passi. "It gave us back our pride. In the context of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, Governments have committed themselves to the economic development of our communities. That nearly a third of our land mass is Indigenous owned is testament to this. On 3 June 1992, six of the seven High Court judges upheld the claim and ruled that the lands of . One of the people who attended the conference, a lawyer, suggested they should make a case to claim land rights through the court system. With support from legal experts, Mabo, along with fellow plaintiffs and Murray Islanders Reverend David Passi, Celuia Mapoo Salee, Sam Passi and James Rice, brought a case against the Queensland Government in the High Court. Topics are usually less than 2 minutes long. 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. At: http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/table-1-human-development-index-and-its-components#a (viewed 9 June 2015). Eddie Koiki Mabo: A Meriam man, husband to Bonita Mabo and father to 10 children. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work. Uncle Eddie 'Koiki' Mabo. 2023 BBC. Words like han. As Kevin Mason divedin the ocean, a compliance officer waswatching on the cliffs above. The new conversation that we need to be having around our rights to land and resources has been captured in the thematic areas I have just spoken about. He was a Meriam man and grew up on Mer, part of the Murray Island Group in the Torres Strait. Eddie Mabo was a staff member at JCU, working as a groundsman from 1967 to 1971. The assumptions were quite erroneous, of course, but Terra Nullius was set in unshakeable motion and stayed rooted in place for two hundred years, even though Aborigines had been in Australia for at least 40,000 years. 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. The case presented by Eddie Mabo and the people of Mer successfully proved that Meriam custom and laws are fundamental to their traditional system of ownership and underpin their traditional rights and obligations in relation to land. and in 2008 James Cook University named its Townsville campus library the Eddie Koiki Mabo Library. We cross rivers and we are changed like the water itself. But he was wrong. Court cases in the mid-19th century challenged the idea of British settlement at the time the rulings were in favour of the Crown. Well, Australia now stands at a moment of history. Read about our approach to external linking. Vincent Lingiari and men and women of the Gurindji people. Eddie Mabo - Wikipedia 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. Powtoon - Eddie Mabo Justice Blackburn ruled Australia was indeed a "settled colony", that this was"desert and uncultivated". This Declaration on the Right to Development was adopted by the General Assembly in 1986. But he had to find words to speak a deeper truth even as he upheld the myth of terra nullius that Aboriginal people, he said, had a "subtle and elaborate system of law". This effectively overturned the doctrine of terra nullius, which held that Australia didn't belong to anybody before European colonisation. HOST: Today is Mabo Day. Eddie Koiki Mabo was a Torres Strait Islander, known for his role in campaigning for Indigenous land rights and for the landmark decision of the High Court of Australia that overturned the legal doctrine of terra nullius ('land belonging to nothing, no one') which characterised Australian law with regards to land and title. This service may include material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), APTN, Reuters, AAP, CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced. "The High Court, which is not elected by anybody, not accountable to anybody, had presumed to move into the legislative area to make a whole new law," he said. Gail, to your Mum Bonita, to Eddie Junior, Wannee, Bethal, Celuia, Ezra, Mario, Malita, Malcolm, Jessie and to you Gail, can I pay special tribute to for the generosity of you all in giving your husband and Dad to us. When our world is ablaze with conflict. The world of becoming ascends. It was awarded Best Documentary at the Australian Film Institute Awards and the Sydney Film Festival.It also received the Script Writing Award at the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards. Uncle Koiki Mabo launches legal case for his land - Deadly Story Others, mainly white opponents, regarded the judgement as a mistake. 2004 Presentation by Fr Frank Brennan SJ AO. Eddie Mabo and Gerard Brennan overturned the terra nullius policy and He told them of his dream of ending his days on Murray Island, on the ancestral land that had been handed down through his family for 15 generations. A while back I read a business management book by an American, Leon C. Megginson. In the Shire of . That permission was denied. I have previously spoken at length about the importance of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which contains 46 articles on the rights that Indigenous peoples all around the world hold. It is lament. Bryan Keon-Cohen was one of Eddie Mabo's barristers, and he gave a speech at Mabo's funderal in Townsville in Feb 1992 - he said: 'I confine myself here . In May 1982, Eddie Mabo and four other Meriam people of the Murray Islands in the Torres Strait began action in the High Court of Australia seeking confirmation of their traditional land rights. 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. Eddie Mabo Facts for Kids - Kiddle The court dismissed his challenge to Australian sovereignty, but in his opinion Justice Lionel Murphy rattled the bones of the Australian settlement. " They can raise us to anger then soothe us. Eddie Mabo was a staff member at JCU, working as a groundsman from 1967 to 1971. Yindyamarra is respect: It is quiet, it is humble. Eddie Mabo | Australian activist | Britannica As a nation, this is an improvement from fourth position just over ten years ago in 2003.[10]. First, they ask me to pass on their greetings and their thanks for allowing me on your lands. Eddie Mabo of Mer island in the Torres Strait spent a decade seeking official recognition of his people's ownership of Mer and on 3 June 1992, the High Court of Australia agreed, rejecting the doctrine that Australia was terra nullius (land belonging to no-one) at the time of European settlement. Two words showed something was wrong with the system, After centuries of Murdaugh rule in the Deep South, the family's power ends with a life sentence for murder, Flooding in southern Malaysia forces 40,000 people to flee homes, When Daniel picked up a dropped box on a busy road, he had no idea it would lead to the 'best present ever', Plans to redevelop 'eyesore' on prime riverside land fall apart as billionaires exit, Labor's pledge for mega koala park in south-west Sydney welcomed by conservation groups, Tom Sizemore, Saving Private Ryan actor, dies aged 61. Mabo/Eddie Mabo's address to Land Rights Conference, 1981 Eddie Koiki Mabo presents a guest lecture about the Torres Strait Islander community 2,837 views Nov 18, 2020 51 Dislike Share Save JCU Library 451 subscribers This short video is an excerpt. He petitioned, campaigned, cajoled and questioned Terra Nullius for 18 years. The golden house of is of culture and connection, of blood and dreaming, of time immemorial how the golden house of is collapses. This is yet another reason why a development approach is so urgently needed. Eddie Mabo was heartbroken and never forgave government authorities. Please join with me in acknowledging the life long accomplishments of Russell Taylor. Birthdays, anniversaries, sports events and special schools days were missed. A human rights based approach has been a key part of advocacy of all Social Justice Commissioners. In his historic speech at Sydney's Redfern Park, then Prime Minister Paul Keaing said: "By doing away with the bizarre conceit that this continent had no owners prior to the settlement of Europeans, Mabo establishes a fundamental truth and lays the basis for justice." Edward Koiki Mabo was born on 29 June 1936. Barrister Ron Castan, Eddie Mabo and barrister Bryan Keon-Cohen at . The justices spoke of a legacy of "unutterable shame"and that the dispossession of Indigenous people was the darkest aspect of Australia's history. As this brave mans voice even as he had passed was heard by another man who is now gone and together they changed us. [1] J Altman., (2014) Scullion Peddles pipedream reforms, Journal of Indigenous Policy, At: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/JlIndigP/2014/33.pdf (viewed 5 June 2015). 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 8th of May in Perth. Promoting Indigenous peoples right to development. OM95-26 Mabo Cutting Books 1990-1994 - (2 vols.) Searching for 'Mabo' in RecordSearch brings up many results, including the files below. We go on, he said, ever, ever, ever on. It would most likely still be in place had it not been for Eddie Koiki Mabo. 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. My people are the Gangulu from the Dawson Valley in Central Queensland. Watch all your favourite ABC programs on ABC iview. Legacy of Eddie Mabo. He knew about suffering. Eddie Koiki Mabo Lecture | Australian Human Rights Commission eddie mabo speech transcript eddie mabo speech transcript Suggested answer: While working as a grounds keeper at James Cook University in Townsville, Eddie learnt about Australian land ownership laws. Despite the fact that the challenge of gaining native title is still a fight that many of us share, there has been a shift in focus now and we have started to see a gradual change in terms of ownership. "Koiki was ambitious for himself and for his people.". Eddie Mabo's legal pursuit of these issues resulted in one of the most significant legal cases in Australian history, in that it completely overturned the idea of terra nullius (land belonging to no-one) and challenged traditionally held beliefs about how Australia came into being, and about ownership of land.