The truth: This was his land. Well, Australia now stands at a moment of history. 2. Financing economic development within the Indigenous estate. The Mabo decision What is the Mabo decision? The Mabo Case Eddie Mabo is widely known for his plight to regain land rights for both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. In acknowledging the traditional rights of the Meriam people to their land, the court also held that native title existed for all Indigenous people. OM95-26 Mabo Cutting Books 1990-1994 - (2 vols.) 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 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. Mabo's love for his homeland drove the proud Torres Strait Islander to undertake a 10- year legal battle that rewrote Australia's history. Our landsings gently a song of sadness. You Murray Islanders have won that court case. Importantly, the Roundtable highlighted that despite previous promises around compensation for historical dispossession, this has not yet materialized. Yindyamarra is respect: It is quiet, it is humble. Family gatherings were foregone. But that hasn't stopped indigenous people, like Queensland elder Douglas Bon, taking great satisfaction in the ruling. Eddie Mabo was heartbroken and never forgave government authorities. He was, if you like, an Australian Nelson Mandela, someone who led his people in a struggle against incalculable odds, to what was rightfully theirs. The legal decision was made by the High Court on 3 June 1992. We all know about the legacy of native title left by Meriam and Murray Islanders Edward Koiki Mabo, David Passi and James Rice. These skills will enable us to make better and informed decisions for maximum benefit and I look forward, as I am sure you do, to the release of IBAs investment principles, which they are currently developing in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and organisations across the country. 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. [3] N Pearson in The Australian, Property rights will help economical development of Indigenous Australians, 22 May 2015. 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. 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. 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. By continuing to use this site, you are giving us consent to do this. 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. Mabo vs Queensland possible Commonwealth interventions, 1991 (A14039, 7909), The Mabo Decision principles for a response, 1993 (A14217, 1042), Mabo responses to the outline of legislation, 1993 (A14217, 1322), Mabo collection at the National Library of Australia, Building trust in the public record policy, Getting started with information management. The fall of the golden house of is but not the end. 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 leave base camp and start our trek across this vast country. Leeanne Enoch MP, Minister for Housing and Public Works and Minister for Science and Innovation. Mabo said was that it is my fathers & grandfather's, grandmother's land, I am related to it, it is my identity. But it was a bittersweet moment for the indigenous population. Eddie's daughter, Gail Mabo remembers that day well. 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. Rachel Perkins, director of the new film, says Mabo's is "an iconic story in the tradition of great Australian tales, how a man, his wife and his mates profoundly changed the nation". But the . He immediately saw the injustice of it and from then on dedicated his life to reversing it. They ruled that the Mabo decision in no way challenges the legality of non-Aboriginal land tenure. But he was wrong. 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. 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. It was on 3 June 1992 that the Australian High Court overturned more than 200 years of white domination of land ownership. Australia owes you a great debt. In New South Wales, the most populous state, Aboriginal people have title over only 0.1% of the land. It goes on to mention the yet unfulfilled nature of redress through a social justice package that I alluded to earlier: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have been progressively dispossessed of their lands. One of the people who attended the conference, a lawyer, suggested they should make a case to claim land rights through the court system. Words speak across tongues. JCU websites use cookies to enhance user experience, analyse site usage, and assist with outreach and enrolment. To strengthen our democracy as Eddie Mabo strengthened our law. 3. Business development support and succession planning. Eddie Koiki Mabo Lecture Series. According to accounts of the conversation, the two scholarly figures looked at each other and then, delicately, told Mabo that he didn't own the land and that it was Crown land. Reynolds struck up a friendship with Eddie Mabo, who was then a groundsman and gardener at James Cook University. I have heard it at dawn as the earth crackles, the river waters run, and the animals stir as the Sun peers above the hills and the light strikes the trees on my beloved Wiradjuri country. 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. 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. 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. His mother died during childbirth and he was raised by his mother's brother, Benny Mabo . "It gave us back our pride. "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.". A panel of judges at the High Court ruled that Aboriginal people were the rightful custodians of the land. We cannot cross the same stream twice. He is best known for the two court cases that bear his name, Mabo v. Queensland (numbers 1 and 2). 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 . However, contemporary Indigenous governance needs recognises that we must now adjust our customary ways of governing to meet the expectations and regulations of non-indigenous laws and institutions. 10. 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. The decision. To sign treaties. Eddie Mabo was a staff member at JCU, working as a groundsman from 1967 to 1971. And he was right. This landmark decision led to the Australian Government introducing native title . Their hard fought battle against the Queensland government finally consigned the lie of terra nullius to the historical dustbin and recognised the unique rights that we hold as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to our traditional land and waters. My people are the Gangulu from the Dawson Valley in Central Queensland. We know sadness. At http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/264/hdr_2003_en_complete.pdf (viewed 9 June 2015). On 8 December 1988, the High Court ruled this legislation invalid. On 21 May 2008, James Cook University named its Townsville campus library the Eddie Koiki Mabo Library. Today in the midst of winter there is still smoke from a campfire, framing a word spelled out on the lawn: Sovereignty. Han is Korean and it is more than a word. In 1973 Mabo founded the Black Community School in Townsville, which was created to educate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and preserve traditional knowledge and practices. At: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/ALRCRefJl/2009/15.html#FootnoteB6 (viewed 9 June 2015). Edward Koiki Mabo was born on 29 June 1936. These barriers all prevent us from using our land to enter into the economy from which we can see ourselves and our communities thrive. 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. I honour your Elders that have come before you, those that are here today and I wait in optimistic anticipation for those Elders who are yet to emerge. Yindyamarra winanghanha. And in 1981, Eddie was invited by the same university to make a speech about Mer's land inheritance system. Unfortunately, the right to development is not a concept often thought about in relation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as members of a developed country. Our News 2004 Presentation by Fr Frank Brennan SJ AO. And that is the cost to both men and their families.