Eddie Mabo

Edward Koiki Mabo (né Sambo; c. 29 June 1936 – 21 January 1992[1]) was an Indigenous Australian man from the Torres Strait Islands known for his role in campaigning for Indigenous land rights and in a landmark decision of the High Court of Australia that overturned the legal doctrine of terra nullius ("nobody's land") that characterised Australian law with regard to land and title.

Eddie Mabo
Born
Edward Koiki Sambo

(1936-06-29)29 June 1936
Mer, Torres Strait Islands, Queensland, Australia
Died21 January 1992(1992-01-21) (aged 55)
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Spouse(s)
​
(m. 1959)​
Children10

Early life and family

Mabo was born Edward Koiki Sambo[1] but changed his surname to Mabo when he was adopted by his uncle, Benny Mabo.[2] This adoption was part of traditional Torres Strait Islander adoption practices.[3] He was born on the island of Mer (Murray Island) in the Torres Strait between mainland Queensland and Papua New Guinea.[2]

Mabo married Bonita Neehow, an Australian South Sea Islander, in 1959. The couple had seven children and adopted three more.[4] One daughter, Gail, is an Aboriginal artist[5] and dancer who works with schools in New South Wales as a cultural advisor[6] and serves as the family's designated spokesperson.[7]

Bonita Mabo died in Townsville on 26 November 2018, aged 75, just days after receiving an honorary doctorate of letters from James Cook University for her contributions to indigenous rights and human rights.[8][9]

Mabo's nephew was Anglican Bishop Saibo Mabo.[10]

Career

Mabo worked on pearling boats, as a cane cutter, and as a railway fettler before becoming a gardener at James Cook University in Townsville, Queensland at age 31.

In 1973, Eddie and Bonita Mabo established the Black Community School in Townsville, where children could learn their own culture rather than white culture.[11]

The time Mabo spent on the campus had a massive impact on his life. In 1974, he was talking with James Cook University historians Noel Loos and Henry Reynolds, and Loos recalls:

we were having lunch one day in Reynolds' office when Koiki was just speaking about his land back on Mer, or Murray Island. Henry and I realised that in his mind he thought he owned that land, so we sort of glanced at each other, and then had the difficult responsibility of telling him that he didn't own that land, and that it was Crown land. Koiki was surprised, shocked and even ... he said and I remember him saying 'No way, it's not theirs, it's ours.'[12]

Later, when Mabo was a research assistant on an oral history project in the Torres Strait, Reynolds records:

He got as far as Thursday Island and no further. He was refused permission to land on any of the other islands in the Straits. A reputation as a radical was a heavy burden in Queensland at the time. For Eddie the rejection was devastating. He could not go home. He was not only landless in the eyes of white man's law, he was an exile as well.[13]

Land rights advocate

In 1981 a land rights conference was held at James Cook University and Mabo gave a speech in which he explained the land inheritance system on Murray Island. The significance of this in terms of Australian common law doctrine was noted by one of the attendees, a lawyer, who suggested there should be a test case to claim land rights through the court system. Perth-based solicitor Greg McIntyre was at the conference and agreed to take the case; he then recruited barristers Ron Castan and Bryan Keon-Cohen.[14] McIntyre represented Mabo during the hearings.[15]

Of the eventual outcome of that decision a decade later, Reynolds said: "it was a ten-year battle and it was a remarkable saga really."[16]

Death and Mabo decision

On 21 January 1992, Eddie Mabo died of cancer at the age of 55.[17]

Five months later, on 3 June 1992, the High Court announced its historic decision to overturn the legal doctrine of terra nullius, which defined land which was supposedly "uninhabited" as liable for government seizure.

That decision, formally "Mabo v Queensland (No 2)", now commonly called "Mabo" in Australia, is recognised for its landmark status.

Three years after Mabo died, that being the traditional mourning period for the people of Murray Island, a memorial service was held in Townsville. The next day, Mabo's gravesite was attacked by vandals who spray-painted swastikas and the word "Abo" (a derogatory slang term for Aboriginal people) on his tombstone and removed a bronze bas-relief portrait of him. His family decided to have his body reburied on Murray Island. On the night of his reinterment, the Islanders performed their traditional ceremony for the burial of a Meriam king, a ritual not seen on the island for 80 years.[18]

Legacy

In 1992, Mabo was posthumously awarded the Australian Human Rights Medal in the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Awards, together with the Reverend Dave Passi, Sam Passi (deceased), James Rice (deceased), Celuia Mapo Salee (deceased) and Barbara Hocking (deceased). The award was in recognition "of their long and determined battle to gain justice for their people" and the "work over many years to gain legal recognition for indigenous people's rights".[19]

In 1993 The Australian newspaper commemorated his work by voting him the 1992 Australian of the Year (not to be confused with the official Australian of the Year awards issued by the Australian Government).[20]

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.

On 21 May 2008, James Cook University named its Townsville campus library the Eddie Koiki Mabo Library.[21]

Mabo Day is an official holiday in the Torres Shire, celebrated on 3 June.[22]

On 10 June 2012, Mabo, a television drama based on Mabo's life, was broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).[23]

On 24 August 2015, Tony Abbott became the first Prime Minister of Australia to visit Mabo's grave on Murray Island, where he paid tribute to his legacy.[24]

In 2016, Google Doodle commemorated his 80th birthday.[25]

In 2017, the Royal Australian Mint issued a 50-cent coin commemorating 25 years since Mabo's death and the legal decision and 50 years since the referendum. It was designed by his granddaughter Boneta-Marie Mabo and released in National Reconciliation Week.[26][27]

See also

References
  1. "Mabo: The Man – Adoption". Screen Australia Digital Learning. Archived from the original on 10 August 2014. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
  2. "Facts Sheet – Edward Koiki Mabo 1936–1992". Racism No Way. Archived from the original on 28 July 2016. Retrieved 21 July 2016.
  3. Caldwell, Felicity (15 November 2017). "Traditional Torres Strait Islander adoption practices to be acknowledged under Labor". Brisbane Times. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  4. "It's time, says Bonita Mabo". The Sydney Morning Herald. 1 August 2004. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
  5. "Mabo Art". jcu.edu.au. 21 May 2009. Archived from the original on 26 August 2014.
  6. "Social Justice and Human Rights Issues: A Global Perspective". csu.edu.au. Archived from the original on 26 August 2014.
  7. "Mabo's gift". The Sydney Morning Herald. 2 June 2012. Archived from the original on 16 September 2014.
  8. Higgins, Isabella (26 November 2018). "Bonita Mabo, prominent Indigenous rights activist, dies days after receiving accolade". ABC News. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
  9. Allam, Lorena (27 November 2018). "Bonita Mabo: tributes pour in for 'mother of native title'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 27 November 2018. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
  10. Barraud, Anita (29 May 2012). "Mabo 20 years on". The Law Report. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 13 April 2016. Retrieved 18 January 2020.
  11. "Black Community School". Screen Australia Digital Learning. Archived from the original on 10 April 2018. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
  12. Created by Thomas Rickard (2 November 2008). "We Are No Longer Shadows". First Australians. Australia. 13:45 minutes in. SBS. SBS. Archived from the original on 27 September 2010. See also Reynolds, Henry (1992). The Law of the Land (2 ed.). Ringwood, Vic: Penguin. pp. 185–186.
  13. Id., p. 186.
  14. "About Bryan Keon-Cohen". Archived from the original on 10 June 2015. Retrieved 17 June 2015.
  15. "You're part of the family, Mabo clan tells lawyer who led landmark case". The Sydney Morning Herald. 4 June 2012. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015.
  16. "Eddie Mabo". ABC. 12 November 2015. Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  17. Noel, Loos. "Mabo, Edward Koiki (Eddie) (1936–1992)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Melbourne University Press. ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 10 August 2016 – via National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
  18. "Let's Talk Mabo" (PDF). Reconciliation Australia. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  19. "1992 Human Rights Medal and Awards". Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 11 August 2007.
  20. "Papers of Edward Koiki Mabo – MS 8822". National Library of Australia. Archived from the original on 18 July 2005. Retrieved 23 September 2007.
  21. "Architecture – Eddie Koiki Mabo Library Building Award – JCU". James Cook University. Archived from the original on 18 September 2009. Retrieved 1 September 2009.
  22. "Mabo Day". Torres Strait regional authority. Archived from the original on 12 March 2011. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
  23. "Personal face of a public battle". The Sydney Morning herald. 31 May 2012. Archived from the original on 31 May 2012. Retrieved 31 May 2012.
  24. "Tony Abbott visits Eddie Mabo's grave on Murray Island". ABC. Archived from the original on 24 August 2015. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  25. "Edward Koiki Mabo's 80th birthday". Archived from the original on 2 July 2016. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
  26. "New coin designed by Boneta-Marie Mabo released into circulation for National Reconciliation Week". Royal Australian Mint. 24 May 2017. Archived from the original on 23 October 2017. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
  27. Copp, Amanda (25 May 2017). "New 50c coin commemorates Mabo and 1967 referendum". SBS News. Special Broadcasting Service. Archived from the original on 23 October 2017. Retrieved 23 October 2017.

Further reading
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