What was Eddie Mabo speech about?
What was Eddie Mabo speech about?
Eddie ‘Koiki’ Mabo was a Torres Strait Islander who believed Australian laws on land ownership were wrong and fought to change them. In 1981, Eddie Mabo made a speech at James Cook University in Queensland, where he explained his people’s beliefs about the ownership and inheritance of land on Mer.
What was Eddie Mabo famous for?
Mabo gained an education, became an activist for black rights and worked with his community to make sure Aboriginal children had their own schools. He also co-operated with members of the Communist Party, the only white political party to support Aboriginal campaigns at the time.
What was Eddie Mabo’s role in the 1967 referendum?
Short for Mabo and others v Queensland (No 2) (1992), the Mabo case, led by Eddie Kioiki Mabo, an activist for the 1967 Referendum, fought the legal concept that Australia and the Torres Strait Islands were not owned by Indigenous peoples because they did not ‘use’ the land in ways Europeans believed constituted some …
Why did Justice Dawson dissent in Mabo?
Justice Dawson, however, held that such rights exist only if recognised or acquiesced in by the Crown, and that this did not happen in this case. Hence he dissented.
What does Mabo Day commemorate for kids?
Mabo Day is marked annually on 3 June. It commemorates Mer Island man Eddie Koiki Mabo and his successful efforts to overturn the legal fiction of terra nullius, or ‘land belonging to no-one’.
How do we commemorate Eddie Mabo?
In 2015, 23 years after the decision, Eddie Mabo was honoured by the Sydney Observatory in a star naming ceremony, a fitting and culturally significant moment in our nations’ history.
What did Eddie Koiki Mabo do for a living?
During this time he became involved in community and political organisations, such as the union movement and the 1967 Referendum campaign. In 1973 Mabo founded the Black Community School in Townsville, which was created to educate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and preserve traditional knowledge and practices.
Why did Eddie Mabo change his name to Mabo?
Early life and family. Mabo was born Eddie Koiki Sambo but he changed his surname to Mabo when he was adopted by his uncle, Benny Mabo.
Who are the people involved in the Mabo case?
Legal proceedings for the case began on 20 May 1982, when a group of four Meriam men, Eddie Koiki Mabo, Reverend David Passi, Sam Passi, James Rice and one Meriam women, Celuia Mapo Sale, brought an action against the State of Queensland and the Commonwealth of Australia, in the High Court, claiming ‘native title’ to the Murray Islands.
Why was Eddie Mabo important to the land rights movement?
Mabo rejected the more militant direct action tactics of the land rights movement, seeing the most important goal as being to destroy the legal justification for what he regarded as land theft. He petitioned, campaigned, cajoled and questioned Terra Nullius for 18 years.