eddie mabo speech transcript

Tenacity, fearlessness, fearsome, tireless are some of the words that come to mind when the names Rob Riley and Eddie Mabo are mentioned. 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]. Words. Up to April 2010, 84 native title cases had been dealt with by the courts, and 854,000 sq km (330,000 sq miles) is now covered by native title determinations. 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. 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. "The rights he won in the High Court have been eroded away by government, courts and socio-economic pressure.". [3] N Pearson in The Australian, Property rights will help economical development of Indigenous Australians, 22 May 2015. The Mabo decision was named after Eddie Mabo, the 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. It is this issue of development that I will explore later in greater detail. To make agreements. You and I know all too well that we live shorter, poorer lives than our non-Aboriginal counterparts. 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. How might this case shatter the myth of terra nullius? That's why the legal decision is universally known as "Mabo". Eddie Mabo's dream had come true; a meeting of minds to address the issue of Aboriginal land . JCU websites use cookies to enhance user experience, analyse site usage, and assist with outreach and enrolment. In 1959, he moved to mainland Queensland, working on pearling vessels and as a labourer. 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. When voices within democracies silenced and marginalised are demanding to be heard, we are bringing oursand challenging our democracy to examine itself and for our constitution to be seeded in the first footprints, not just the first settlers. HOST: Today is Mabo Day. Help your class to explore the life of Eddie Mabo with this engaging and educational biography-writing task. In-text: (Two generations talk about the impact of the 1967 Referendum and the 1992 Mabo Decision, 2019) Your Bibliography: Time Out Sydney. A discussion of Mabo Day (June 3), which commemorates Torres Strait Islander activist Eddie Koiki Mabo and the historic Mabo decision, in which the High Court of Australia acknowledged Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' land rights. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work. Another key challenge that came out of the roundtable was the need to improve the capacity of our mobs to have the necessary advocacy; governance and risk management skills to successful engage in business and manage our estates in order to secure the best possible outcomes for our communities. 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. He is best known for the two court cases that bear his name, Mabo v. Queensland (numbers 1 and 2). "He became a driven man," says his friend and documentary maker, Trevor Graham. Other forms of recognition have been added. This activity encourages children to write down their knowledge in a structured report . This led to the subsequent High Court case, Mabo v Queensland (No 2), which was to determine the matter of the plaintiffs' land rights. : he world to possession and I emfphasise Opossessions We leave base camp and start our trek across this vast country. 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. These barriers all prevent us from using our land to enter into the economy from which we can see ourselves and our communities thrive. Here we are 30 years later, still on that journey. But we know that these scales do not capture the social disadvantage experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Why Alex Murdaugh was spared the death penalty, Why Trudeau is facing calls for a public inquiry, The shocking legacy of the Dutch 'Hunger Winter', Why half of India's urban women stay at home. At http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/264/hdr_2003_en_complete.pdf (viewed 9 June 2015). 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. This achievement certainly encourages me. Mabo was a Torres Strait islander from Mer (Murray Island), off Australia's north-east coast. 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. Short for Mabo and others v Queensland (No 2) (1992), the Mabo case, led by Eddie Koiki Mabo, an activist for the 1967 Referendum, fought the legal concept that Australia and the Torres Strait Islands were not owned by Indigenous peoples because they did not 'use' the land in ways Europeans believed constituted some kind of legal possession. 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. A Yolngu word meaning to come together after a struggle. 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. Eddie Mabo was a great hero to the Australian people. 3. Business development support and succession planning. Well, Australia now stands at a moment of history. When the decision overturning Terra Nullius eventually came, the judges referred to the policy as "the darkest aspect of (our) national history" and one that left "a legacy of unutterable shame". To seek justice we had to speak the words of British law. Mabo died five months earlier from cancer in January 1992, at the age of 55. Eddie Mabo was a staff member at JCU, working as a groundsman from 1967 to 1971. Until Mabo, we had been a forgotten people, even though we knew that we were in the right.". For 50 years this embassy has stood as a reminder that we are still here. Love, suffering, hope, justice and truth Eddie Mabo knew about love too. . We are still trying to find the words to equal the full measure of Eddie Mabo's devotion. We will adapt, we will take advantage of these opportunities and we will leave a great legacy. Mabo expressed disbelief and shock. British law was the law of the colony and usurped and superseded Aboriginal law. Some records include terms and views that are not appropriate today. I also acknowledge the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Nigel Scullion who is here today and my colleague Tim Wilson, our Australian Human Rights Commissioner. Transcript. 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. 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. 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. It is sadness beyond the word sadness itself. 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. 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. [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). In 1974, he became involved in a discussion with two academics. SPEECH - THURSDAY, 3 JUNE . 2006 Presentation by Professor Larissa Behrendt. 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. Eddie Mabo was a staff member at JCU, working as a groundsman from 1967 to 1971. When democracy is teetering and autocracy is rising. In one, the presiding judge said the mere introduction of British law did not extinguish Aboriginal customary law. He would later describe his time on the island as 'the best time of my life'1. Words like han. 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. Mr Mabo died in 1992 just months before his 10-year legal battle for native title rights proved successful. That was Eddie Mabos gift. The truth: This was his land. 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. These are the traditional lands and waters of the Meriam people, and the final resting place of Eddie Mabo in Las Village. Other cases persisted. Court cases in the mid-19th century challenged the idea of British settlement at the time the rulings were in favour of the Crown. As this brave mans voice even as he had passed was heard by another man who is now gone and together they changed us. We did not end. AAP. 2023 BBC. His mother died during childbirth and he was raised by his mother's brother, Benny Mabo . He's recorded as saying: "No way, it's not theirs, it's ours." But he was wrong. 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]. Mabo Day & Native Title: Who was Eddie Mabo & what is his legacy? That word is emblazoned still at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy on the lawns of the Old Parliament House in Canberra. "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.". Rejected at each turn. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that this resource and resource page may contain the image, name or voice of deceased persons. Eddie Mabo at James Cook University, early 1980s Series 8. Our people know han. A clear theme from the Broome Roundtable revealed a common frustration among many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. A documentary, Mabo: Life of an Island Man, directed by Trevor Graham, was released in 1997 and received the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Documentary. From 1973-1983 he established and became director of the Black Community School in Townsville. 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'. 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. These organisations could assist in under-writing costs, insurance and risk as well as helping explore options for Indigenous specific loan products. Eddie Mabo would not live to see his final victory, but in that judgement he became immortal. The memory of wounds. 2004 Presentation by Fr Frank Brennan SJ AO. The courts had previously found that the Nguraritja had non-exclusive native title over certain parcels of land, but not over those where native title had already been extinguished. Others, mainly white opponents, regarded the judgement as a mistake. . We cross rivers and we are changed like the water itself. And he knew truth. 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". 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. The National Archives holds a diverse array of records relating to the Mabo case. We know sadness. What's the least amount of exercise we can get away with? However the Federal Court found that the South Australian government were liable for an undisclosed amount to the Nguraritja people for parcels of land over which, but for the prior extinguishing acts of government, they would have held native title. In particular, this was raised as a way that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities might be able to leverage finances in order to support economic development opportunities and to improve the capacity of our mobs to best manage these prospects in the future. I was no lawyerbut I knew I sensed this was different. The Court also recognised that all Indigenous people in Australia have rights to their land. As a nation, this is an improvement from fourth position just over ten years ago in 2003.[10]. 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. A panel of judges at the High Court ruled that Aboriginal people were the rightful custodians of the land. 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. The decision. Ten years later, he conceded his fears were unfounded. As Kevin Mason divedin the ocean, a compliance officer waswatching on the cliffs above. I was there as a young associate working for a judge, and saw the jubilation and relief of . Words speak across tongues. A culture and a people facing devastation. This landmark decision led to the Australian Government introducing native title . In 2014, Australia ranked second after Norway, in the United Nations Human Development Index,[9] a position that would seem to indicate that we all enjoy a quality of life superior to most others in the world. This is our land. (2014 lecture transcript), 2013 Presentation by Dr Bryan Keon-Cohen QC. Choose from the list of topics on the left and then choose 'Click to Play'. 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. The nation remained diminished. Our landsings gently a song of sadness. It's the anniversary of a court decision that recognized for . (2010 lecture transcript). To Eddie Koiki Mabo and chief justice Sir Gerard Brennan. The judge's four hundred page report presented Mabo and his barristers with a bombshell which threatened to sink their case. Truth. Mabo ended up on the mainland working a number of jobs, including labouring on the railways. And that is the cost to both men and their families. But the . The Mabo decision What is the Mabo decision? Uncle Eddie 'Koiki' Mabo. Promoting Indigenous peoples right to development. 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. The issue of compensation goes to the core of the initial intent of addressing the historical dispossession of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from their lands and waters. Only land such as vacant crown land, national parks and some leased land, can be subject to claims by the Aboriginal owners. The "fallacy" that Perkins speaks of is the concept of Terra Nullius, land belonging to no-one. This was our land. Aboriginal Australians are celebrating the 20th anniversary of their landmark victory over land rights. That permission was denied. I am sure that these issues will resonate with many of you here today. [2] Australian Human Rights Commission, Paper on Indigenous Leaders Roundtable, Property Rights, p4. [6] UN Declaration on the Right to Development, Article 1, para 1. (2011 lecture transcript), 2010 Presentation by Professor Chris Sarra. You can find it still, somewhere buried in the archives of ABC News. In going down this track we have to understand and have to get these institutions to understand that there is a fair dinkum business case for doing this because we have had enough of welfare and charity. Then, in June 1992, the years of sacrifice and persuasion came to fruition. De Rose Hill is a landmark case because it represents a significant moment in time in the native title space. 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. Another similarity is something that sometimes we do not acknowledge enough. Judged by any civilised standard, such a law is unjust ". It is clear that we have seen a change in momentum as far as this space is concerned. 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. 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. That nearly a third of our land mass is Indigenous owned is testament to this. Edward Koiki Mabo was born on 29 June 1936. Governance has always been at the core of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and our community life. 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 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. 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? This often presents internal issues for traditional owner groups about how decisions are made and how benefits will be shared and responsibilities exercised. 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. The practical effects of Mabo have, indeed, been mixed, judging by figures from the Koori Mail, a national indigenous-owned newspaper. The legal decision was made by the High Court on 3 June 1992. 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. Elders saythe wateris now a battleground. Drama Biopic Inspiring. The world of becoming ascends. He was another victim of Terra Nullius, like so many of his fellow indigenous people had been before him. 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. I want to give two words from my people, Wiradjuri. 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 ! The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. The Mabo decision was a legal case held in 1992. It clearly did not, for instance, lead to vast numbers of white Australians being forced from their homes, businesses, mines or farms. Without this foundation, there would be no opportunity for us to access these rights through this unique form of land tenure. Mabo and his fellow plaintiff's fought for land on Mer - their ancestral gardens and home. They reflect the period in which they were created and are not the views of the National Archives. It is lament. 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 golden house of is of culture and connection, of blood and dreaming, of time immemorial how the golden house of is collapses. But he was wrong. 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. There was something of destiny in the air. It was on 3 June 1992 that the Australian High Court overturned more than 200 years of white domination of land ownership. 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.

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