Eddie Mabo

Eddie Mabo

Edward Koiki Mabo was a Torres Strait islander man who was born on the island of Mer (Murray).

Eddie was an Aboriginal activist. He is one of the most famous Indigenous people know for changing the rights for Aboriginal land rights.

Eddie is so greatly recognized that June 3 is Mabo Day. This recognizes his efforts to overturn the fiction of Terra Nulluis, claimed by the Europeans almost 250 years ago. Eddie was named Australians magazine Australian of the year in 1992 and has multiple awards and even a library named after him.

Eddie unfortunately died in 1992 before the bill passed but his legacy still lives on.

• What was the purpose of the event/movement?

The purpose of Eddie Mabo's legacy was to give back the land rights and titles to the Indigenous people or the forgotten people. This would put an end to a two-century-year-old lie, that the Aboriginal people did not exist before the first fleet landing in Botany Bay. Eddie Mabo would proceed to change the course of history for Aboriginal rights and gain recognition for Aboriginal people that they are the traditional owners of the land. Eddie single handily changed the falsely proclaimed Terra Nullius with hard work and dedication.

• What were the key events?

"My father told me: ‘Son, this land will belong to you when I die.’"

It was in 1974 when Eddie was doing some work on the mainland of Australia. He was a gardener for James Cook University in Townsville, Queensland. He was talking with historians Noel Loos and Henry Reynolds from the university about handing the Murray island land down to the next generation and moving on. It became a dispute and Eddie's eyes were opened that the Aboriginal people that had lived on the land for tens of thousands of years didn't actually hold ownership of the land yet it was Crown land. Eddie was in disbelief and shock. "No way, it's not theirs, it's ours." But unfortunately for Eddie, he was wrong.

After the conversation, Eddie became a very determined man to change this, he also helped to educate people about the great injustice that Aboriginals had faced for two centuries.

Eddie became more devoted towards aboriginal rights participating in public events and helping out in the Aboriginal community such as making sure aboriginal kids had schools. The conversation at the university in Townsville made Eddie even more determined for change.

In 1981 Eddie Spoke at a conference at the university in Townsville about the land rights for Murry island. After this conference with such support, he decided to take the battle to court in 1982.

In 1988, Eddie was set back as the Queensland High Court ruled that the Queensland Coast Islands Declaratory Act 1985 (Qld) was incompatible with the Racial Discrimination Act (1975). 

Five months after Eddie died aged 55, the bill was passed in court. Eddies daughter recalls the event like it was yesterday. 'I heard on the radio we had won the case,” Gail said. I started crying and thinking that if my father was alive he would be dancing. I then heard the sound of thunder and said to my son ‘hear that he is dancing.’”

In the following years Eddie won numerous medals such as the Australian human rights medal. The library at the James Cook University in Townsville was named the Eddie Koiki Mabo Library. In 2012 a movie was made after Eddie, cementing Eddie as one of the most influential activists in the history of Australia.

• To what extent was the purpose achieved?

Due to Eddie Mabo, the purpose was achieved at the highest level getting his bill passed in the Australian High court. The bill stated the Torres Strait Islander people held ownership over Murry island and thus that all Indigenous people held land traditional rights of their land. A year later in 1993, the high court rendered Terra Nullius a legal fiction.

This result was and still is of the huge symbolic importance of the ruling and subsequent legislation, both of which recognise the connection between land, identity and continuity of family and community felt by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.