Mabo Day

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Mabo Day is a commemorative day that occurs annually on 3 June. It is an official holiday in the Torres Shire, [1] and occurs during National Reconciliation Week in Australia. [2] [3]

The date is the anniversary of the Mabo v Queensland (No 2) decision by the High Court of Australia, which recognised the pre-colonial land interests of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples within Australia's common law. [2] [3] It commemorates Eddie Koiki Mabo (c. 29 June 1936–21 January 1992), [4] [5] a Torres Strait Islander man whose campaign for Indigenous land rights in Australia led to the court's decision, which overturned the legal fiction of terra nullius that had characterised Australian law with regard to land and title since the voyage of James Cook in 1770.[ citation needed ]

In 2002, on the tenth anniversary of the High Court decision, Mabo's widow, Bonita Mabo, called for a national public holiday on 3 June. On the eleventh anniversary, in 2003, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) launched a petition to make 3 June an Australian Public Holiday. Eddie Mabo Jnr, for the Mabo family, said: [6]

We believe that a public holiday would be fitting to honour and recognise the contribution to the High Court decision of not only my father and his co-plaintiffs, James Rice, Father Dave Passi, Sam Passi and Celuia Salee, but also to acknowledge all Indigenous Australians who have empowered and inspired each other.

To date fax we have not had a public holiday that acknowledges Indigenous people and which recognises our contribution, achievements and survival in Australia.

A public holiday would be a celebration all Australians can share in with pride – a celebration of truth that unites Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians and a celebration of justice that overturned the legal myth of terra nullius - Mabo symbolises truth and justice and is a cornerstone of Reconciliation.

In 2010 a campaign was launched to make it a national holiday in Australia. [7]

Related Research Articles

<i>Mabo v Queensland (No 2)</i> 1992 High Court of Australia decision which recognised native title

Mabo v Queensland is a decision of the High Court of Australia, decided on 3 June 1992. It is a landmark case, brought by Eddie Mabo against the State of Queensland. The case is notable for first recognising the pre-colonial land interests of Indigenous Australians within Australia's common law.

<i>Terra nullius</i> International law term meaning territory that has never been the subject of a sovereign state

Terra nullius is a Latin expression meaning "nobody's land". It was a principle sometimes used in international law to justify claims that territory may be acquired by a state's occupation of it. There are currently three territories claimed to be terra nullius, two of which are caused by border disputes between sovereign states.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eddie Mabo</span> Torres Strait Islander and land rights activist for indigenous Australians

Edward Koiki Mabo was an Indigenous Australian man from the Torres Strait Islands known for his role in campaigning for Indigenous land rights in Australia, in particular the landmark decision of the High Court of Australia that recognised that indigenous rights to land had continued after the British Crown acquired sovereignty and that the international law doctrine of terra nullius was not applicable to Australian domestic law. High court judges considering the case Mabo v Queensland found in favour of Mabo, which led to the Native Title Act 1993 and established native title in Australia, officially recognising the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Torres Strait Islands</span> Group of islands in the Torres Strait between Australia and New Guinea

The Torres Strait Islands are a group of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait, a waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They span an area of 48,000 km2 (19,000 sq mi), but their total land area is 566 km2 (219 sq mi).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murray Island, Queensland</span> Town in Queensland, Australia

Murray Island in the Torres Strait Island Region, Queensland, Australia. The island is part of the Murray Island Group in the Torres Strait. The town is on the island's northwest coast and within the locality of Mer Island. The island is of volcanic origin, the most easterly inhabited island of the Torres Strait Islands archipelago, just north of the Great Barrier Reef. The name Meer/Mer/Maer comes from the native Meriam language. In the 2016 census, Murray Island had a population of 453.

Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians have rights and interests to their land that derive from their traditional laws and customs. The concept recognises that in certain cases there was and is a continued beneficial legal interest in land held by Indigenous peoples which survived the acquisition of radical title to the land by the Crown at the time of sovereignty. Native title can co-exist with non-Aboriginal proprietary rights and in some cases different Aboriginal groups can exercise their native title over the same land.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meriam people</span>

Melanesian Meriam people are an Indigenous Australian group of Torres Strait Islander people who are united by a common language, strong ties of kinship and live as skilled hunter–fisher–gatherers in family groups or clans on a number of inner eastern Torres Strait Islands including Mer or Murray Island, Ugar or Stephen Island and Erub or Darnley Island. The Meriam people are perhaps best known for their involvement in the High Court of Australia's Mabo decision which fundamentally changed land law in Australia - recognising native title.

Indigenous land rights are the rights of Indigenous peoples to land and natural resources therein, either individually or collectively, mostly in colonised countries. Land and resource-related rights are of fundamental importance to Indigenous peoples for a range of reasons, including: the religious significance of the land, self-determination, identity, and economic factors. Land is a major economic asset, and in some Indigenous societies, using natural resources of land and sea form the basis of their household economy, so the demand for ownership derives from the need to ensure their access to these resources. Land can also be an important instrument of inheritance or a symbol of social status. In many Indigenous societies, such as among the many Aboriginal Australian peoples, the land is an essential part of their spirituality and belief systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Welcome to Country</span> Ritual of land acknowledgement

A Welcome to Country is a ritual or formal ceremony performed as a land acknowledgement at many events held in Australia. It is intended to highlight the cultural significance of the surrounding area to the descendants of a particular Aboriginal clan or language group who were recognised as the original human inhabitants of the area. For the Welcome to be recognised as official, it must be performed by a recognised elder of the group. Welcomes to Country are sometimes accompanied by traditional smoking ceremonies, music or dance. Where an elder is not available to perform the Welcome, or there is not a recognised traditional owner, an Acknowledgement of Country may be offered instead.

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Ernestine Bonita Mabo, was an Australian educator and activist for Aboriginal Australians, Torres Strait Islanders, and Australian South Sea Islanders. She was the wife of Eddie Mabo until his death in 1992.

Indigenous land rights in Australia, also known as Aboriginal land rights in Australia, relate to the rights and interests in land of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia, and the term may also include the struggle for those rights. Connection to the land and waters is vital in Australian Aboriginal culture and to that of Torres Strait Islander people, and there has been a long battle to gain legal and moral recognition of ownership of the lands and waters occupied by the many peoples prior to colonisation of Australia starting in 1788, and the annexation of the Torres Strait Islands by the colony of Queensland in the 1870s.

Mabo is an Australian docudrama TV film, released in 2012, which relates the successful legal battle waged by Torres Strait Islander man Eddie Koiki Mabo to bring about native land title legislation in Australia.

<i>Mabo: Life of an Island Man</i> 1997 film by Trevor Graham

Mabo: Life of an Island Man is a 1997 Australian documentary film on the life of Indigenous Australian land rights campaigner Eddie Koiki Mabo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Queensland Coast Islands Declaratory Act 1985</span>

The Queensland Coast Islands Declaratory Act 1985 was an Act of the Parliament of Queensland, the intent of which was to retroactively abolish native title claims by Torres Strait Islanders to islands off the coast of Queensland, specifically Murray Island. It was passed in response to court proceedings started by the Torres Strait Meriam people led by Eddie Koiki Mabo, who were attempting to have their land claims recognised by the common law. The Act was condemned by supporters of the Indigenous Australian civil rights movement. The act was overturned in the 1988 Mabo v Queensland High Court case, which found it inconsistent with the Racial Discrimination Act 1975.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mau Power</span> Hip-hop artist from Torres Strait

Mau Power, born Patrick James Mau, is a hip hop artist from Thursday Island in the Torres Strait and is the first Australian rapper to tour from this region. He is also the founder and executive director of One Blood Hidden Image, the first Torres Strait independent record distribution label, film production and media company.

Saibo Mabo was an Australian bishop in the Anglican Church of Australia. He served as an assistant bishop in the Anglican Diocese of North Queensland from 2002 to 2015, and as National Bishop to the Torres Strait Islander people during that time.

Reconciliation in Australia is a process which officially began in 1991, focused on the improvement of race relations between the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia and the rest of the population. The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation (CAR), created by the government for a term of ten years, laid the foundations for the process, and created the peak body for implementation of reconciliation as a government policy, Reconciliation Australia, in 2001.

References

  1. ↑ "Mabo Day". Torres Strait regional authority. Archived from the original on 12 March 2011. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
  2. 1 2 "Commemorating Mabo Day". Reconciliation Australia. 3 June 2020. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
  3. 1 2 "Reconciliation Week". Department of the Premier and Cabinet (South Australia) . 16 April 2021. Retrieved 9 October 2021. CC-BY icon.svg Attribution 3.0 Australia (CC BY 3.0 AU) licence.
  4. ↑ Caldicott, Helen. "Eddie Mabo". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 15 March 2011.
  5. ↑ "Mabo Day". Torres Strait Regional Authority. Archived from the original on 12 March 2011. Retrieved 15 March 2011.
  6. ↑ "Mabo Day". Aboriginal Heritage Office. 2 June 2013. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
  7. ↑ "Calls for Mabo Day to be national holiday". Torres Strait Directory. Retrieved 15 March 2011.
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