Eddie Koiki Mabo played a major role in the Aboriginal Civil Rights Movement during 1962 to 1992. An activist with unyielding drive in the pursuit of equality for Indigenous people, he brought much needed change to Australian society, becoming a champion for civil and human rights in the process. Mabo’s success is particularly evident in his numerous victories for the recognition of native title rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, as well as their advancement in Australian society. He did however, achieve much more than just this.
One such example of the role Mabo played in the Aboriginal Civil Rights Movement was his time served as Secretary for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advancement League (ATSIAL) - 1962 to 1969. Throughout this time he worked to expose police brutality and racial discrimination against the Indigenous population, as well as to provide affordable services and housing for these people. Mabo along with other early Indigenous activists also lobbied for a referendum to allow the Federal Government to legislate on Aboriginal affairs, In which he became a spokesperson and relentless campaigner for the diverse Torres Strait Islander community in Townsville.
Furthermore, Mabo was one of the first to call for
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The case, simply coined ‘Mabo vs State of Queensland,’ was a hard fought battle between the two entities on the notion that although Aboriginal people had been living on Australian land for thousands of years, it was deemed ‘terra nullius’ - nobody’s land - by British settlers. With great determination and unwavering opinion Mabo managed to single mindedly challenge two centuries of legal status quo, and win on 3 June, 1992, with a ruling of six to one in his favour by the High Court of Australia, reached shortly after his
At the conference he explained the traditional land ownership and inheritance system that his community followed on Mer Island. Afterwards, a lawyer in the audience noted the significance of his speech and suggested there should be a test case to claim land rights through the court system. In 1982, Eddie Koiki Mabo and four Mer islanders took their case of ownership of their lands on Mer Island to the Queensland Supreme Court. With Eddie Mabo as the leader the case became widely known as the ‘Mabo case’. After the court ruled against them, the islanders took the case to the High Court. On 3 June 1992 (ten years later), the court decided in favour of the Islanders and ruled that ‘the Meriam people of the Torres Strait did have native title over their traditional
Eddie Mabo was a recognised Indigenous Australian who fought for his land, Murray Island. Mabo spent a decade seeking official recognition of his people’s ownership of Murray Island (Kwirk, 2012). He became more of an activist, he campaigned for better access for indigenous peoples to legal and medical services, to house, to social services and to education. The Mabo case was a milestone court case which paved the way for fair land rights for indigenous people. The Merriam people wanted to ensure its protection. Eddie Mabo significantly contributed to the civil and land rights of Indigenous people in Australia due to his argument to protect his land rights. In a speech in 1976, at a conference on the redrawing of the Torres Strait border, Mabo articulated a vision for islander self-determination and for an independent Torres Strait Island (Stephson, 2009).
Throughout Australian history, there have been men and women who fought for the entitlements of the indigenous people. The most respected and recognised of these is Eddie Mabo, a Torres Strait Islander. Mabo stood up for the rights of his people from a very young age all the way to his death, in order to generate changes in the policies and laws of the government. Mabo battled for his right to own the land which he had inherited from his adoptive father, a fight which was resolved only after his demise. Despite this, Eddie Mabo became one of the key influential figures in the Aboriginal rights movement, as his strong will, determination, and intelligence allowed him to bring about change.
Eddie Mabo’s success at land rights has reshaped and rewrote Australian society and history. Mabo was born a Torres Strait Islander and a member of the Meriam people on Murray (Mer) Island, 1936. He went on to be an Indigenous community leader and human rights activist after marrying Bonita Nehow in 1959 and joining the Torres Strait Islander community, consequently becoming director of the Townsville Black Community School in 1973. Patrick Hatch, reporter for Herald Sun Newspaper 2013, reiterated Mabo’s reaction once told his land on Mer belonged to the Crown and not his family by Professor’s Noel Loos and Henry Reynolds, co-workers from James Cook University where Mabo worked as a gardener in 1974. “Everybody kn...
This essay is about the land rights of of Australia and how Eddie Marbo was not happy about his land been taken away from him. In May 1982 Eddie Marbo and four other people of the Murray Islands began to take action in the high court of Australia and confirming their land rights. Eddie Marbo was a torres islander who thought that the Australian laws were wrong and who went to fight and try and change them. He was born in 1936 on Mer which is known as Murray Island. The British Crown in the form of the colony of Queensland became of the sovereign of the islands when they were annexed in1978. They claimed continued enjoyment of there land rights and that had not been validly extinguished by the sovereign. (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2012)
Vincent Lingiari and the Gurindji people who walked with him changed the Australian political landscape. Therefore, the ‘Wave Hill Walk Off’ proved an establishment to the liberation of Aboriginal people from the struggles for rights and
The laws regarding native title have continually been questioned about its legitimacy in providing justice to Indigenous Australians and their lost land. The Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) was recently established in response to the Mabo v Queensland case in 1992. Eddie Mabo and four other Torres Strait Islanders went
Of the 8 successful, the 1967 referendum which proposed the removal of the words in section 51 (xxvi) ‘… other than the aboriginal people in any State’ (National Archives of Australia ND), and the deletion of section 127, both, which were discriminative in their nature toward the Aboriginal race, recorded a 90.77% nationwide vote in favour of change (National Archives of Australia, 2014). As a result, the Constitution was altered; highlighting what was believed to be significant positive political change within Indigenous affairs at the time (National Archives of Australia, 2014). Approaching 50 years on, discussion has resurfa...
Throughout the world, in history and in present day, injustice has affected all of us. Whether it is racial, sexist, discriminatory, being left disadvantaged or worse, injustice surrounds us. Australia is a country that has been plagued by injustice since the day our British ancestors first set foot on Australian soil and claimed the land as theirs. We’ve killed off many of the Indigenous Aboriginal people, and also took Aboriginal children away from their families; this is known as the stolen generation. On the day Australia became a federation in 1901, the first Prime Minister of Australia, Edmund Barton, created the White Australia Policy. This only let people of white skin colour migrate to the country. Even though Australia was the first country to let women vote, women didn’t stand in Parliament until 1943 as many of us didn’t support female candidates, this was 40 years after they passed the law in Australian Parliament for women to stand in elections. After the events of World War Two, we have made an effort to make a stop to these issues here in Australia.
The Calder Case was the spark that led to the Canadian government recognizing Aboriginals and their rights. Firstly, the aboriginals used the Calder Case to inform the government that they were taking away their rights. The Calder Case was launched after the Attorney General of British Columbia declared “that the Aboriginal Title, other wise known as the Indian Title, of the Plaintiffs to their ancient tribal territory...has never been lawfully extinguished.”1 The statement made by the government claimed that the Aboriginal Title did not exist in the eyes of the law and before the Calder Case, it allowed them to ignore Aboriginal land rights all over the country. In addition, The Calder brought the issues the Aboriginals were facing with land claims to the attention of the Canadian government. “According to Kainai Board of Education The case made it all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada where the court ended up rejecting the native's claims after being split on it's validity. However, the Supreme Court of Canada's recognition required new respect for Aboriginal land claims.”2 The Supreme Court of Canada's recognition of the Calder Case benefited the Aboriginals as the government was...
It was then that a lawyer in the crowd noticed a significance in Mabo’s speech and story. The lawyer suggested that there should be a test case to claim the land mabo believed he deserved and to claim land rights through the court system. Greg Mcintyre agreed to take the case, and as soon as word got out, other people wanted to claim their own land as well. Because of the multiple people that wanted the same thing under the same trial, the case was recognized as the ‘Mabo Case’.
In 1992, terra nullius was abolished in Australia, which can be accredited to the campaign of Eddie ‘Koiki’ Mabo. In the feature film, Mabo, both Koiki’s positive and negative qualities are revealed throughout his emotional and political journey for Indigenous land rights. While not always recognised, Koiki possesses admirable character that is displayed in his family life, pursuit for justice, prior achievements and in court, which is inspired by his heroes.
Indigenous Australian land rights have sparked controversy between Non Indigenous and Indigenous Australians throughout history. The struggle to determine who the rightful owners of the land are is still largely controversial throughout Australia today. Indigenous Australian land rights however, go deeper than simply owning the land as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have established an innate spiritual connection making them one with the land. The emphasis of this essay is to determine how Indigenous Australian land rights have impacted Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, highlighting land rights regarding the Mabo v. the State of Queensland case and the importance behind today’s teachers understanding and including Indigenous
Since the time of federation the Aboriginal people have been fighting for their rights through protests, strikes and the notorious ‘day of mourning’. However, over the last century the Australian federal government has generated policies which manage and restrained that of the Aboriginal people’s rights, citizenships and general protection. The Australian government policy that has had the most significant impact on indigenous Australians is the assimilation policy. The reasons behind this include the influences that the stolen generation has had on the indigenous Australians, their relegated rights and their entitlement to vote and the impact that the policy has had on the indigenous people of Australia.
This presentation is about Charles Perkins, an Australian Aboriginal Activist. This presentation will outline who he is, why he promoted change, his roles, the outcomes of his actions and the people who benefited from his actions. This presentation focuses on Charles Perkins actions gaining rights and freedoms for Australian Aboriginals, mainly focusing on the freedom ride. Australian Aboriginal activist, Charles Perkins, had a significant impact and effect on the rights and freedoms of Indigenous Australians mainly in NSW but also Australian wide from 1963 to 1972 through organising the freedom riders and participating in other organisations and activities for Australian Aboriginals. Charles Perkins has done many things to help in the fight for rights and freedom for Australian Aboriginals. One of the main things he did was organise and lead the freedom ride in 1965. There were various reasons as to why Charles Perkins promoted change, but that fact that he experienced the discrimination and poor treatment of Aboriginals first hand definitely made his motives stronger. He had many roles in the fight for rights and freedom for Aboriginals, but one of his main positions was co-organising and leading the freedom ride in 1965. The main outcomes of his actions, was he helped gain rights and freedom for the Indigenous Australians.