Humorous Wedding Speech

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Ladies and gentlemen As the President of the Aboriginal Society of James Cook University, it is my honour to formally acknowledge the hard work of Eddie Mabo and the sacrifices he has made for the fifteen years or so, to achieve the historic annulment of the ‘Terra Nullius’ law by the Supreme Court last week. Although we are greatly saddened to have lost Eddie to cancer five months ago, it is with great pride that we call upon his eldest son, Eddie Jr, to receive this award, on behalf of his father. Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together to welcome Eddie Mabo’s son, Eddie Jr! Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. As Eddie Mabo’s eldest son, I am honoured today to stand before you to receive my father’s award for Outstanding …show more content…

Not only did the stress of the battle contribute to the cancer he suffered in the final months of his life here on earth, but it also exposed what, to me, was his greatest flaw. For you, ladies and gentlemen, to our family, my father may have also been a hero, but in dedicating an entire two decades of his life fighting for his people to be recognised as equals to the non-Indigenous community, he severely neglected his role as father and husband. Indeed, I barely remember him being present at any of our birthdays, or end-of-year concerts or even teaching any of us to read or write or play any games. What I do remember, however, is my mother, who, heavily pregnant for ten years of her life, went to work at a prawn-packing factory to support us, cooked endless meals with the barest of ingredients available with her meagre salary and patiently mended our old hand-me-downs as we faced yet another Christmas without enough money to buy new clothes. I remember how she would beg our neighbour, to keep an eye out for us, just so she make it on time to work, before Dad came home and the day she had a huge fight with dad, leaving with all of us to Aunty Allison’s house, because Dad was again, passionately talking to her about his case, when what she desperately needed was a husband who understood how hard it was for a

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