Eddie Mabo Essay

The late Eddie Mabo was an Australian man from the Torres Strait Islands. He was known for his role in campaigning for Indigenous land rights, and also his role in a landmark decision of the High Court of Australia.

Eddie Mabo was born on the Mer Island on June 29, 1936. When his mother died giving birth, he was adopted by his aunt and uncle who changed his last name to Mabo. As a child, Eddie was taught about his family’s land in the Torres Strait Islands of Australia. When Eddie grew up he moved to Queensland, Australia, and worked a couple of odd jobs until he found his calling to be a school teacher, specifically teaching black indigenous Australian kids. The school he taught at was co-founded by Mabo and was called the black community school, located in Townsville.

In 1981, Mabo gave his first speech on explaining the traditional land

ownership and inheritance system that his community followed on Mer Island.

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’.

Mabo wanted to claim the land because he truly believed that it belonged to him. He grew up hearing stories about how the land belonged to his ancestors and even recent family members. Well, court systems don’t rely on stories from ancestors and family members as evidence, so he had some trouble there. But Mabo realized that other people were

having the exact same problem as him, so he wanted to do something about it and find proof for people trying to claim land that rightfully belonged to them. Mabo became interested in politics and became comfortable publicly speaking with and to different races. Mabo believed that his land had been taken by whites and he wanted it back, and he was somewhat right. The land that he thought was his was taken over by French settlers way back when and Mabo was the first to say anything about it in modern times. Eddie Mabo brought an end to a very big lie, for two centuries, the British, and white Australians operated under some belief, that somehow Aboriginal people did not exist or have land rights before the first settlers arrived in 1788. It was also a disregard of Britain's own existing laws, which stated that the Aboriginal people did have title rights over their own land. Eddie Mabo was diagnosed with cancer and he died on January 21, 1991. Although Eddie Mabo did not live to see fully what he did and what impact he had on the indigenous land rights of Australia he is still honored today as one of the most influential people in Australian history. After his death, Eddie Mabo had gotten multiple awards including, Eddie was awarded the Australian Human Rights Medal in 1992, In 1993 the Australian newspaper voted Eddie Mabo as their 1992 Australian of the Year, and on June 3rd it is Mabo day in Australia.
Growing up, Eddie Mabo had heard stories about how his ancestors had lived on the Torres Strait islands in Australia. He noticed that the population was mostly white Australians and when he asked his parents about it they said that French settlers came to Australia and took his ancestors land. This is what fueled his drive to change that. Eddie Mabo is an upstander because he worked to change the laws and get his land rights back for his family and other islanders facing the same problem. He worked to fight for what he believed in, he succeeded and he is now an inspiration to many people around the world.