Eddie Mabo

Eddie Koiki Mabo (c.1936–21 January 1992). A Torres Strait Islander, Eddie Mabo became famous in Australian history for his role in campaigning for indigenous land rights and for his role in a landmark decision of the High Court of Australia that overturned the legal fiction of terra nullius which characterised Australian law with regards to land and title. He was born Eddie Koiki Sambo but he changed his name later in life.

Youth

Mabo was born in 1936 on Mer Island (also known as Murray Island), one of the Torres Strait Islands. His mother died shortly after his birth and his maternal uncle, Benny Mabo and his wife were entrusted to raise him.

In his youth, Eddie Mabo, like other Murray Islanders was educated about his family's land. But at that time in the Torres Strait Islands, life was strictly regulated by the Queensland Government through their Island Council, and as a result of a teenage prank the Council exiled him from his home.

After that point he worked on pearling boats and then when his exile was extended he moved to Townsville and worked on the railways. This proved to be an important turning point in his life, for Eddie Mabo became the spokesperson for the Torres Strait Islander gang on the railroads, and in that capacity he frequently interacted with white Australian trade union officials.

In 1959 he married Bonita Neehow, with whom he would raise ten children.

Higher education

Over the next decade, Eddie Mabo worked on a number of jobs before becoming a gardener with James Cook University in Townsville, Queensland at the age of thirty one. Being at the campus was a massively significant period in his life. He would sit in on lectures. He would go to the library and read books, particularly those written by white anthropologists about his people.

In 1974, this culminated in a discussion he had with Professor Noel Loos and Henry Reynolds, who recalled Eddie Mabo's reaction as follows,

"...we were having lunch one day in Reynold's office when Koiki was just speaking about his land back on Mer, or Murray Island. Henry and I realised that in his mind he thought he owned that land, so we sort of glanced at each other, and then had the difficult responsibility of telling him that he didn't own that land, and that it was Crown land. Koiki was surprised, shocked and even... I remember him saying 'No way, it's not theirs, it's ours."

Land rights advocate

In 1981 a Land Rights Conference was held at James Cook University and to that audience, Eddie Mabo made a speech where he spelt out clearly land ownership and land inheritance in Murray Island. The significance of this in terms of Australian common law doctrine was not missed by one of the attendees, a lawyer, who suggested there should be a test case to claim land rights through the court system.

The Murray Islanders decided they would be the ones to challenge the legal principle of terra nullius in the High Court and that Eddie Koiki Mabo would be the one to lead that action.

Of the outcome of that decision Henry Reynolds said that "...it was a ten year battle and it was a remarkable saga really. After listening to the argument and after investigating it, Justice Moynihan came to the conclusion that Koiki Mabo was not the son of Benny Mabo and declared that he had no right to inherit Mabo land."

While personally devasted, Eddie Koiki Mabo persisted in pursuing the matter and appealed it to the High Court of Australia.

Death and legacy

However, while he would take time out to relax by working on his boat or painting watercolours of his island home, after ten years the strain began to affect his health.

In January 1992, Koiki Mabo died of cancer. He was fifty-six years of age.

Five months later on June 3 the High Court announced its historic decision, namely overturning the legal fiction of terra nullius - ('no-mans land') which is a modern term applied to the attitude of the British towards land ownership on the continent of Australia.

"...so Justice Moynihan's decision that Mabo wasn't the rightful heir was irrelevant because the decision that came out was that native title existed and it was up to the Aboriginal or Islander people to determine who owned what land." Henry Reynolds.

That decision is now commonly called "Mabo" in Australia, and recognised for its landmark status. Three years after Eddie Koiki Mabo died, that being the traditional mourning period for the people of Murray Island, a gathering was held in Townsville for a memorial service.

Overnight his grave site was vandalised. Koiki's body was reburied on Murray Island, the land he loved and fought for so hard. That night, the Islanders performed their traditional ceremony for the burial of a king, a ritual not seen on the island for eighty years.

References

Mabo Papers
Biographical Note - timeline of Mabo's Life
Oct. 25, 1999 issue of TIME magazine - time magazine article
Eddie Mabo Biography
Papers of Eddie Mabo - held by the National Library of Australia
Collection of art works by Edward Koiki Mabo - held and digitised by the National Library of Australia
Apek kebile: Eddie Koiki Mabo : the boy from the other side of the island (videorecording) - "about Eddie Mabo, his love for his people and his homeland ..." / Office for Torres Strait Islander Affairs
Mabo: life of an island man / original screenplay by Trevor Graham (1999, ISBN 0868195804)