Eddie Koiki Mabo was an advocate of the 1967 Referendum, fighting for equal rights including education. Eddie Mabo (left) and . [3] N Pearson in The Australian, Property rights will help economical development of Indigenous Australians, 22 May 2015. Mabo ended up on the mainland working a number of jobs, including labouring on the railways. When I looked over the lives of these two great Australians I was struck by the similarities of their struggles and the qualities they each share. Judged by any civilised standard, such a law is unjust ". In fact, the court went to considerable lengths to establish that the impact of its judgment will be minimal on non-Aboriginal Australians. Birthdays, anniversaries, sports events and special schools days were missed. He was another victim of Terra Nullius, like so many of his fellow indigenous people had been before him. During this time he enrolled as a student and studied teaching at the College of Advanced Education, which later amalgamated with JCU. Concocted by the early settlers, it was used, systematically, cynically and effectively to deprive the indigenous people of their own land. 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Mabo rejected the more militant direct action tactics of the land rights movement, seeing the most important goal as being to destroy the legal justification for what he regarded as land theft. Hide message. And that is the cost to both men and their families. [10] UN Development Programme, Human Development Index, UN Human Development Report, p237. Eddie Mabo had challenged the very ideological establishment of Australia and the first Australians. Mabo, Edward Koiki (Eddie) (1936-1992) . Jenny Macklin MP, Minister for Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. Eddie Koiki Mabo died of cancer on 21 January 1991, before the case was resolved. Our people know han. When our world is ablaze with conflict. 2019. The world of becoming ascends. 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. 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. This needs to change. I am sure that these issues will resonate with many of you here today. But the . 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 contains just 10 articles on what the instrument describes as an, inalienable right, by which every human person and all peoples are entitled to participate in, contribute to and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development, in which all human rights and fundamental freedoms can be fully realised.[6]. Another similarity is something that sometimes we do not acknowledge enough. the belief that Australia and its islands belonged to no-one when claimed by the British in 1770) in a landmark court . Volume 1 (227pp), Volume 2 (58pp). (2012) This program was published 2 years ago. This dispossession occurred largely without compensation, and successive governments have failed to reach a lasting and equitable agreement with Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders concerning the use of their lands.[12]. Court cases in the mid-19th century challenged the idea of British settlement at the time the rulings were in favour of the Crown. He knew about suffering. These organisations could assist in under-writing costs, insurance and risk as well as helping explore options for Indigenous specific loan products. Justice Blackburn ruled Australia was indeed a "settled colony", that this was"desert and uncultivated". I'd also like to thank AIATSIS for the invitation to speak today and in doing that can I congratulate you Russell on receiving your recent Member of the Order of Australia award. Mabo and others: products or agents of progress? At http://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/native-title-report-2008 (viewed 5 June 2015). There will be many words between now and then. Mabo's credibility as the primary witness for the case was savaged . 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 ! 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You Murray Islanders have won that court case. The justices spoke of a legacy of "unutterable shame"and that the dispossession of Indigenous people was the darkest aspect of Australia's history. Finally, the remaining key theme of the meeting was the issue of our right as Indigenous peoples to development. A lawyer heard the speech and asked . So, in many ways, the victory has been more symbolic than practical. 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. He knew about hope and he knew about justice. 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. Today I want to talk about how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples can be the leaders to grasp new opportunities that will leave a legacy for generations to come. 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? Eddie Mabo's dream had come true; a meeting of minds to address the issue of Aboriginal land . There was something of destiny in the air. Fungibility and native title. According to his daughter Gail Mabo, it 'fuelled his determination for recognition and equality in society'. It would most likely still be in place had it not been for Eddie Koiki Mabo. "The golden house of is collapses. 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. About 800 kilometers north of Cairns sits the small remote community of Mer (Murray) Island in the crystal blue waters of the Torres Strait. Transcript ID: 3849. 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. At: http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/table-1-human-development-index-and-its-components#a (viewed 9 June 2015). The Mabo decision was named after Eddie Mabo, the However, in the lead-up to these hearings, the Parliament of Queensland passed the Queensland Coast Islands Declaratory Act 1985, which asserted that, upon being annexed by the Queensland Government in 1879, 'the islands were vested in the Crown freed from all other rights, interests and claims'. 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. 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. 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 . This will always be our land. Some went further, fuelling the hysteria with unsubstantiated claims - Jeff Kennett, then the premier of Victoria, said suburban backyards could be at risk of takeover by Aboriginal people. Even though these rights have been watered down over the years, they have enabled us to reach a point where we now own nearly a third of the entire Australian continent and I am told approximately 54% of places like the Northern Territory. 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. A while back I read a business management book by an American, Leon C. Megginson. The Mabo decision was a legal case held in 1992. Overwhelmingly, what participants told us at the Roundtable was that whilst there had been an expansion of the Indigenous estate since the commencement of the Native Title Act that it largely has not delivered sustainable outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It is short for Mabo and others v Queensland (No 2) (1992). Eddie Koiki Mabo (c. 29 June 1936 - 21 January 1992 [1]) was an Australian man from the Torres Strait Islands known for his role in campaigning for Indigenous land rights and for his role in a landmark decision of the High Court of Australia which overturned the legal doctrine of terra nullius ("land belonging to nobody") which characterised By continuing to use this site, you are giving us consent to do this. Mabo tells the story of one of Australia's national heroes - Eddie Koiki Mabo, the Torres Strait Islander man who left school at age 15, yet spearheaded the High Court challenge that overthrew the fiction of terra nullius. The truth: This was his land. 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. But alongside . He knew about suffering. It was on 3 June 1992 that the Australian High Court overturned more than 200 years of white domination of land ownership. . Words like the Uluru Statement from the Heart: We, gathered at the 2017 National Constitutional Convention, coming from all points of the southern sky, make this statement from the heart: Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes were the first sovereign Nations of the Australian continent and its adjacent islands, and possessed it under our own laws and customs. The second key theme that was raised at the roundtable was the issue of financing economic development within the Indigenous estate. In some ways our systems of governance is a defining feature of the oldest living culture on this planet. What is this Eddie Mabo Biography Worksheet? You may have heard that Tim Wilson, Human Rights Commissioner and I recently co-convened a roundtable on Yawuru country on the issue of Indigenous property rights. A clear theme from the Broome Roundtable revealed a common frustration among many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Transcript notes - MABO, Eddie, RICE, James v State of Queensland and Commonwealth of Australia, ITM1641344 Eddie Koiki Mabo: Land Rights in the Torres Strait I would like to first of all express my sincere thanks to the organizers of this conference: in particular the James Cook University Student Union and the Aboriginal Treaty Committee in Townsville for allowing me to speak at this very important conference. The earliest papers on the Murray Island land claim are a manuscript and typescript of a speech by Mabo at the Land Rights and Future of Australian Race Relations Conference at James Cook University in 1981. 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. At http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/264/hdr_2003_en_complete.pdf (viewed 9 June 2015). Eddie Mabo's heritage and culture were major influencers in his rise to prominence. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work. They ruled that the Mabo decision in no way challenges the legality of non-Aboriginal land tenure. It is sadness beyond the word sadness itself. When I looked over the lives of these two great Australians I was struck by the similarities of their struggles and the qualities they each . 3. Business development support and succession planning. Mabo gained an education, became an activist for black rights and worked with his community to make sure Aboriginal children had their own schools. This will always be our land. At: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/ALRCRefJl/2009/15.html#FootnoteB6 (viewed 9 June 2015). During this time he became involved in community and political organisations, such as the union movement and the 1967 Referendum campaign. 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. Meriam history and culture were crucial to the success of the Mabo case. [7] OHCHR Website, Essays in Commemoration of 25 years of the United Nations Declaration on the Right to Development. : he world to possession and I emfphasise Opossessions The golden house of is collapses and the world of becoming ascended.". But 20 years after the judgement, there's still a debate among constitutionalists, lawyers and politicians about the legacy of Mabo. 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. That nearly a third of our land mass is Indigenous owned is testament to this. Eddie Mabo was heartbroken and never forgave government authorities. We need to work alongside government to equip ourselves with the knowledge and skills to turn the economic and commercial aspirations into reality. Topics are usually less than 2 minutes long. Eddie Mabo was a Torres Strait Islander activist. The 50-minute recording shows Koiki Mabo talking about the history of the Torres Strait Islander community, both in the Torres Strait and on the Australian mainland, and the long term impact on his culture of the coming of Europeans, from the first missionaries to current government administrators. And these were the costs borne by the whole family. [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). Transcript. Yindyamarra winanghanha. I must say though, that beyond economic development, effective governance is critical to ensuring that our organisations are transparent and accountable to our communities and this is one challenge to which we must rise. It's the anniversary of a court decision that recognized for . Eddie Mabo and Gerard Brennan overturned the terra nullius policy and changed Australia forever. The judges satisfied themselves that Aboriginal people had been in Australia first, did have a long, rich culture that denoted civilisation and had voluminous evidence of land demarcation, usage and inheritance, to back up their claims of longevity and history. Later in 1992, Mabo was posthumously awarded the Australian Human Rights Medal. What did Eddie Mabo say in his speech? Two generations talk about the impact of the 1967 Referendum and the 1992 Mabo Decision . 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. 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 - as in Eddie Mabo, who famously fought a winning fight against the legal doctrine of terra nullius to enshrine Aboriginal land rights in law - is referenced on two occasions. 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. Mabo's love for his homeland drove the proud Torres Strait Islander to undertake a 10- year legal battle that rewrote Australia's history. Rejected at each turn. Eddie Mabo was a staff member at JCU, working as a groundsman from 1967 to 1971. Without this foundation, there would be no opportunity for us to access these rights through this unique form of land tenure. Importantly, development is also a process through which other human rights can be realized and our wellbeing alongside all other populations is maximised. These adjustments are key if we are to translate our inherent legal rights under native title into sustainable opportunities for our people. The most important revelation arising from Eddie Mabo's claim and the High Court's decision was that an ancient title connected to the traditional occupation of the land by Aboriginal and Islander people had survived the . This landmark decision led to the Australian Government introducing native title . In 1994 the Torres Strait Regional Authority (TSRA) was established in response to Read More There was scepticism, even cynicism, but I was able to report the story. On 3 June 1992, six of the seven High Court judges upheld the claim and ruled that the lands of . Six weeks later his father died. Eternal. Well, Australia now stands at a moment of history. These things range from various legal and administrative barriers that are placed on us once a native title determination has been made and includes various tax and regulatory standards placed on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in the post determination phase, conflicts between individual and communal property interests and issues arising from the conversion of title. And he was right. Vincent Lingiari and men and women of the Gurindji people. 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. Tenacity, fearlessness, fearsome, tireless are some of the words that come to mind when the names Rob Riley and Eddie Mabo are mentioned. This achievement certainly encourages me. Can Nigeria's election result be overturned? It does not create any new rights, but rather reaffirms the rights that exist in many other international treaties and conventions. active, free and meaningful participation in development; self-determination and full sovereignty over natural wealth and resources. To Eddie Koiki Mabo and chief justice Sir Gerard Brennan. Choose from the list of topics on the left and then choose 'Click to Play'. Australian law for two centuries hid the truth behind words. But without warriors such as Eddie, David and James, Rob and countless others, we would not be in the position regarding Indigenous land tenure that we are in today. 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. The Mabo case Records relating to the Mabo case About Eddie Mabo Edward Koiki Mabo was born on 29 June 1936. Watch. But it was a bittersweet moment for the indigenous population. Eddie Koiki Mabo Lecture Series. It is this issue of development that I will explore later in greater detail. This push for economic independence has sought to move away from models of government dependency and have been premised largely on the use of our land as the basis to achieve this. That was Eddie Mabos gift. Ten years before, Eddie Koiki Mabo and his comrades started the legal battle for the recognition of the Meriam people and the ownership of Mer Island. 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. This independence could be realized through greater roles for Indigenous landholders through business, land management and other opportunities. He married Bonita, his teenage sweetheart and with whom he had 10 children in a loving partnership that lasted 30 years. 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. 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. Importantly, the Roundtable highlighted that despite previous promises around compensation for historical dispossession, this has not yet materialized. Eddie's daughter, Gail Mabo remembers that day well. 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. 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. He spoke of impermanence: He knew things did not last and yet we do. They both endured early hard lives that steeled them for the struggles that would eventually come their way. Stan Grant is the ABC's international affairs analyst and presents China Tonight on Monday at 9:35pm on ABC TV, and Tuesday at 8pm on the ABC News Channel, anda co-presenter of Q+A on Thursday at 8:30pm. At: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Development/Pages/RealizingaVisionforTransformativeDevelopment.aspx (viewed 9 June 2015), [8] N Collings, Native title, economic development and the environment, Australian Law Reform Commission Journal 15, 2009. Mabo: Life of an Island Man is a 1997 Australian documentary film on the life of Indigenous Australian land rights campaigner Eddie Koiki Mabo.. Legacy of Eddie Mabo. Across language itself. The words are carefully chosen to sit alongside each other withjust the right length and the right tone, each one setting up the other and chosen for both meaning and music. No transcript available, 2016 Lecture Presentation by Professor N M Nakata, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Indigenous Education and Strategy, James Cook University (Transcript), 2016 Lecture Presentation by Professor N M Nakata, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Indigenous Education and Strategy, James Cook University (2016 Lecture Transcript), 2015 Presentation by The Hon. The issue of compensation for unfinished business was another key theme of the Roundtable. Born in 1936, he grew up in the village of Las on the north bend of Mer Island. (No. We are currently not sharing in the developmental prosperity for which Australia is known. We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future.. Today in the midst of winter there is still smoke from a campfire, framing a word spelled out on the lawn: Sovereignty. To build a world worth living in. Australia owes you a great debt. Other cases persisted. The National Archives holds a diverse array of records relating to the Mabo case.
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