Friday, June 3, 2022 marks the 30th anniversary of the Australian High Court’s historic decision to overturn the doctrine of “terra nullius” – or “no man’s land” – which was declared at the time of European colonization. The aboriginal and island peoples of the Torres Strait occupied the land, spoke their own languages and had their own laws and customs long before the British arrived in 1788, and ‘terra nullius’ was an attempt by the settlers to give legitimacy in their dispossession of First Nations peoples. At the heart of the Supreme Court’s decision was First Nations land rights activist and Mer (Murray) man Eddie Koiki Mabo (1936-1992), the first plaintiff in the case. the “father of the native title.” Mabo Day is celebrated every year at the end of National Reconciliation Week, and is considered a day of reflection on what Mr. Mabo and the other plaintiffs in the famous court case, which led to the annulment of ‘terra nullius’.
Following the ruling of the High Court, the Australian Federal Parliament passed the Native Title Act of 1993 which established a legal framework for claims of native titles throughout Australia by Aboriginal and islanders of Australia. Torres Strait.
Who was Eddie Koiki Mabo?
“If he dies, my children will not be able to speak my language if I do not teach them at this stage.” Cook University, Queensland in 1982. “We need to be able to preserve our identity and culture,” he continued. Mabo was born on the island of Mer (Murray), an advocate for land and community rights in the Torres Strait. 1936. According to a biography of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Island Studies in the Torres Strait (AIATSIS), his first language was Meriam, and he grew up immersed in his Meriam culture. Mr. Mabo quickly became involved in politics and campaigning, becoming a prominent leader of the aborigines and islanders of the Torres Strait in Queensland. “He also founded the Aboriginal Legal Service, he founded a black school in Townsville,” said Greg McIntyre, a lawyer for Mr. Aboriginal. Mabo on the historic High Court case on SBS News.
“He worked with waterfront workers in Townsville and sat in a bar and insisted that he was entitled to a drink when Aboriginal and islanders could not enter the bars in the early days.” .
According to AIATSIS, Mr. Mabo’s time working on campus as a gardener at James Cook University was a “turning point” when he learned that he and other Murray Islanders did not own the land where they had lived for thousands of years, and that it was land of the Crown. Gail Mabo, Mr Mabo’s daughter, said these conversations with university historians Henry Reynolds and Noel Loos were where “he had that fire in his belly”. “For him, the whole notion of owning the land was the fact that it was passed down, from generation to generation,” he told SBS News. “For him, not being entitled to this land, that’s where he got the fire in his belly to go, ‘You know what? I’m going to fight this. Because that’s not right, we’re entitled to our land.’ and to be able to pass it on to our children. ” Mr. Mabo went on to make a speech at the university about his people’s beliefs about land ownership in Mer, where a lawyer suggested a trial case to claim land rights through the courts. What followed was known as the “Mabo case.” Tony McAvoy SC, a Wirdi man and native title attorney, said Mabo was admired for his tenacity and perseverance.
“Eddie’s tenacity and perseverance against all odds, Koiki Mabo, is something that inspires us all,” he said.
Wirdi home Tony McAvoy SC. Source: SBS News / Felicity Davey
Gail described her father as a man of “short stature but great in voice” and whose passion was “fighting for the underprivileged.”
“I was amazed at everything he did. And just being a kid, looking at me, was like, ‘how deadly is my dad?’ That’s how I see this man, a wonderful man for all he has done. “
‘An emotional struggle’: campaign to turn ‘terra nullius’ upside down
Mabo Day marks the anniversary of the success of Mr. Mabo in annulling the doctrine that Australia was “terra nullius” – that is, land that belonged to no one – at the time of European colonization. This declaration had meant the occupation and connection between the aborigines and the islanders of the Torres Strait. The case began on May 20, 1982, when five people from Meriam – Eddie Mabo, the Rev. David Passi, Sam Passi, James Rice and Celuia Mapo Sale – filed a lawsuit against the state of Queensland and the Commonwealth at High. Court, claiming the “native title” of the Murray Islands. Mr. Mabo was the first plaintiff appointed. The case lasted 10 years. On June 3, 1992, the High Court upheld the lawsuit, ruling that the Australian lands were not “terra nullius” when the European settlement took place, and that the Meriams – the traditional owners of the Murray Islands – had “right to possession in front of the whole world”. , occupation, use and enjoyment of (most of) the lands of the Murray Islands ”.
He rejected the doctrine of ‘terra nullius’.
Copy of the Mabo judgment of the Australian High Court of 3 June 1992. Source: SBS News / Felicity Davey
Mabo died five months before the High Court made its decision. He was 55 years old. “It was an emotional struggle for him. And of course, as one of his legal representatives, I joined him in that excitement, “said Mr McIntyre.” When we really got that title for him, of course, it was a great joy to have one “. he said the impact the decision had on the community at large is” something significant, of which I think I would have been very proud “.
“And I’m very proud of him.”
What is the significance of the Mabo ruling?
Robert Tickner, who was then Minister of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs under the Keating Labor government, described the 1992 ruling as a “historic decision”. the decision. It was really a historic decision that changed Australia for the better, “he said. continent but they still had it. a continuing right of ownership over many parts of the continent. “
Linda Burney, the newly appointed Australian Indigenous Minister under the Labor government of Anthony Albanese, also described it as “incredibly significant”.
“I think most people certainly remember where he was when he got on the radio,” he told SBS News. “For the first time in law, terra nullius was denied and that was crucial.”
The following year, parliament passed the Indigenous Titles Act of 1993 to “provide a national system for the recognition and protection of Indigenous title and for its coexistence with the national land management system.”
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“When the Native Title Act was passed, Australia knew it was a new era, it put flesh in the bones of the reconciliation process, because there can be no reconciliation without justice in this country,” Tickner said.
‘Where are we going from here?’
Before the 30th anniversary of the historic decision, the grandson of Mr. Mabo, Kaleb Mabo, that Mabo Day is a day to be celebrated by everyone, not just the aborigines and islanders of Torres Strait. “That’s why I’ve started pushing for this day to become a national holiday so that Indigenous and non-Indigenous people can recognize it for what it is,” Kaleb said. “It’s the day when white Australia recognized the Indigenous Australians, the people of the First Nations, the ones who came here first.” Kaleb said there is still a lot of work to be done. “To me, it’s a little special, but it also raises the question of what we have and where we are going as Indigenous peoples in Australia?” he said. “What did the abolition of ‘terra nullius’ really mean and what did it do and did it mean for Indigenous Australia?
“It simply came to our notice then. What is our next step? Where are we going from here? “
“We are in a better place to move forward together”
For Gail Mabo, her father’s achievements “regained the voice of those indigenous peoples” and “empowered them to move forward as a people.” “Now, with all this recognition, and 30 years later, we are in a better place to move forward together.” , “she said.
“My father’s legacy is not just for me; it’s for everyone. If we can get a leaf out of his book and be better people, and acknowledge the wrongs that have been done, and in fact recognize and move forward together, that it would make a better country. “
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Gail said Australia has long taken “small steps” when it comes to recognizing its indigenous peoples. “Now is the time to lengthen our pace, to make things move,” he said. She is encouraged by recent advances, which call for an indigenous voice in the constitutionally enshrined Parliament and the establishment of a Makarrata Commission. “The best place [it] it could be, ”he said, adding that he believes people are now informed with a greater understanding of“ what the Indigenous Australians want to achieve. ”“ People have grown up with Mabo as a voice that has been there, but not he understood. But now, with that time, 30 years later … people can say, “Now we understand, and we’ll be by your side, and we recognize Mabo, the man who abolished terra nullius.” “For me, the hope is that we will have a better Australia when the time comes for my grandchildren and great-grandchildren.”
With an additional report by Sarah Collard.