Eddie Mabo Case Study

Eddie Mabo’s heritage and culture were major influencers in his rise to prominence. Born in 1936, he grew up in the village of Las on the north bend of Mer Island. He would later describe his time on the island as ‘the best time of my life’1. There, he was brought up by a society where Indigenous traditions and colonial influence were carefully connected in both their economy and religion. It was through this interaction and the accommodation of cultures, that Mabo’s identity was established.

Indigenous issues on an international level became more acutely visible to Mabo following his move to Townsville in 1959. During this time, Indigenous Australians were beginning to be motivated by a more aggressive sense of aboriginal patriotism. Indigenous

The first is Paul Keating’s Redfern speech of December 1992, during the Mabo case. Keating spoke about the injustices committed against Indigenous people since European settlement of Australia and the need to acknowledge and remedy these. The conflicting source is an interview of John Howard on the 7.30 report in 1997, 4 years after the Mabo decision. Howard deals with the perceived implications of the Mabo and subsequent land title decisions for land ownership across Australia. The two sources conflict as they are taken from opposing parts of the mainstream Australian political spectrum. They reflect the so-called History Wars, a debate regarding the unresolved cultural struggle over the nature of the Indigenous dispossession and the place it should assume in Australian self-understanding. The Redfern Speech sets out the views of the left wing, progressive spectrum of Australian political views. John Howard’s interview sets out the arguments against the political and economic effects of the Mabo decision and subsequent land title decisions and largely reflects right-wing political views. The sources differ not only in their political views but also the time that they were given. Keating sets out his moral perspective regarding the need to rectify the past wrongs and improve the future prospects for Australian indigenous people. It was delivered before the final Mabo high court decision, and so cannot deal with the social, economic and political implications of said decision. Contrastingly, John Howards interview was 4 years after the Mabo decision, during which several subsequent land title decisions had been made. Consequently, his interview focused on his views of the implications of those subsequent events for Australia’s political, social and economic