eddie mabo speech transcript
It is sadness beyond the word sadness itself. Mabo died five months earlier from cancer in January 1992, at the age of 55. 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. He spoke of impermanence: He knew things did not last and yet we do. This achievement certainly encourages me. 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". Mabo expressed disbelief and shock. "It gave us back our pride. 2004 Presentation by Fr Frank Brennan SJ AO. In his book Why Weren't We Told?, Reynolds describes the talks they had regarding Mabo's people's rights to their lands, on Murray Island, in the Torres Strait. 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. Eddie Koiki Mabo Lecture Series. 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. 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. "If Koiki Mabo were alive today he would be an angry man," says Malezer. Of invasion. During this time he enrolled as a student and studied teaching at the College of Advanced Education, which later amalgamated with JCU. There was something of destiny in the air. It is lament. Resting Place of Eddie Mabo. Transcript ID: 3849. We cannot cross the same stream twice. He was right. What did Eddie Mabo say in his speech? active, free and meaningful participation in development; self-determination and full sovereignty over natural wealth and resources. More Information .We are closed in a box. A lawyer heard the speech and asked Eddie if he would like to challenge the Australian Government in the court system, to decide who the true owner of the land on Mer was, his . 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. 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. and in 2008 James Cook University named its Townsville campus library the Eddie Koiki Mabo Library. His mother passed away shortly after his birth and he was adopted by his maternal Uncle and Aunt, Benny and Maiga Mabo in line with Islander . 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. To Eddie Koiki Mabo and chief justice Sir Gerard Brennan. (Transcript), 2014 Presentation byMs Shannan Dodson, Digital Campaign Manager, Recognise Australia. On 3 June 1992 the High Court of Australia ruled that a group of Torres Strait Islander people, led by Eddie Mabo, owned the island of Mer (Murray Island). The Mabo verdict was arguably the most significant court ruling in the history of Indigenous Australia, overturning the concept of terra nullius and paving the way for native title. 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. He knew about hope and he knew about justice. Mabo Day occurs annually in Australia on 3rd June. 1h 43m. In 1959, he moved to mainland Queensland, working on pearling vessels and as a labourer. 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". In that book he argued, contrary to theories of Charles Darwin, that it was not the fittest or the strongest nor the smartest that survive but those who can manage change, that is it is the most adaptable who survive. To strengthen our democracy as Eddie Mabo strengthened our law. . Leeanne Enoch MP, Minister for Housing and Public Works and Minister for Science and Innovation. That nearly a third of our land mass is Indigenous owned is testament to this. 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. Keating begins by discussing the moral and legal implications of the decision. In a snapshot. What's the least amount of exercise we can get away with? 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. 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. 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. Later in 1992, Mabo was posthumously awarded the Australian Human Rights Medal. Mabo gained an education, became an activist for black rights and worked with his community to make sure Aboriginal children had their own schools. Older articles are being reviewed with a view to bringing them into line with contemporary values but the original text will remain available for historical context. He would later describe his time on the island as 'the best time of my life'1. I walked into the news meeting at the ABC with words. This landmark decision led to the Australian Government introducing native title . "If ever a system could be called a government of laws," he said, "it is shown in the evidence before me.". This is yet another reason why a development approach is so urgently needed. 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. 10. While he believed the Murray Island belonged to the Torres Strait Islander people, Australian law stated that the Government owned the land. On 3 June 1992, six of seven Australian High Court judges ruled: The Meriam people are entitled as against the whole world to possession, occupation, use and enjoyment of the lands of the Murray Islands [in Torres Strait]. He's recorded as saying: "No way, it's not theirs, it's ours." Australian law for two centuries hid the truth behind words. "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 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 . 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. In acknowledging the traditional rights of the Meriam people to their land, the court also held that native title existed for all Indigenous people. 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]. Rob was at the forefront of the fight for land in Western Australia, particularly at Nookanbah and when the WA Government led the resistance to national land rights legislation. 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. A number of key challenges that face Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were explored, particularly when it comes to the full realization of our rights under land rights and native title. 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. Mr Mabo died in 1992 just months before his 10-year legal battle for native title rights proved successful. Eddie Mabo knew about love too. Mabo was a Torres Strait islander from Mer (Murray Island), off Australia's north-east coast. 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. Alex Murdaugh jailed for life for double murder, Why the disgraced lawyer was spared death penalty, Saving Private Ryan actor Tom Sizemore dies at 61, The children left behind in Cuba's mass exodus, Xi Jinping's power grab - and why it matters, Snow, Fire and Lights: Photos of the Week. The legal decision was made by the High Court on 3 June 1992. Speech to the Native Title Conference celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Mabo High Court decision 6 June 2012. . The justices spoke of a legacy of "unutterable shame"and that the dispossession of Indigenous people was the darkest aspect of Australia's history. 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. To make agreements. Others, mainly white opponents, regarded the judgement as a mistake. During this time he became involved in community and political organisations, such as the union movement and the 1967 Referendum campaign. Mabo ended up on the mainland working a number of jobs, including labouring on the railways. It is clear that we have seen a change in momentum as far as this space is concerned. 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. 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. Whilst the case did little to clarify the legal principles around calculating compensation, it is one example of the positive realization after many years, of the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to land and waters within the native title system. - Behind the News Behind the News 133K subscribers Subscribe 483 106K views 3 years ago Mabo Day on June 3rd, celebrates. You Murray Islanders have won that court case. (2013 lecture transcript), 2012 Presentation by Professor Henry Reynolds. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen No wonder Mr Abbott was visibly moved as he thanked "Aunty Gail" for . You can find it still, somewhere buried in the archives of ABC News. Family gatherings were foregone. On 3 June 1992, six of the seven High Court judges upheld the claim and ruled that the lands of . Edward Koiki Mabo was born on 29 June 1936. Eddie Mabo's dream had come true; a meeting of minds to address the issue of Aboriginal land . He immediately saw the injustice of it and from then on dedicated his life to reversing it. It is this issue of development that I will explore later in greater detail. The "fallacy" that Perkins speaks of is the concept of Terra Nullius, land belonging to no-one. Mabo's love for his homeland drove the proud Torres Strait Islander to undertake a 10- year legal battle that rewrote Australia's history. The tools to guide us with a new conversation with Government around the full realization of our rights in relation to land and native title can be found in the UN Declarations on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Right to Development. But it was a bittersweet moment for the indigenous population. Ten years later, he conceded his fears were unfounded. 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. The conference, 'Land Rights and the Future of Australian Race Relations', was sponsored by the Townsville Treaty Committee and the James Cook University's Student Union. And that is the cost to both men and their families. 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. In the Shire of . 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. Reynolds writes: Mabo made a speech to the audience where he explained the indigenous customary land inheritance system on Murray Island. 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.
