Assignment 2: Mabo's Activism and Indigenous Challenges HLSC120

This essay, written for HLSC120/HLSZ120 Indigenous Health and Culture, details the obstacles and challenges faced by Eddie Koiki Mabo and other indigenous people during their activism. It begins by outlining Mabo's early life and work experiences, including his realization of the injustice of 'Terra Nullius'. The essay highlights Mabo's educational journey, his involvement in black rights activism, and his efforts to ensure Aboriginal children had access to schools. It details the legal and political challenges Mabo faced, including the legal battles against the Torres Strait Islands Act and the financial strain of the case. The essay concludes by emphasizing the significance of the Mabo decision in overturning the doctrine of Terra Nullius and transforming land law in Australia, even though Mabo did not live to see the final outcome. The essay references key sources, providing a comprehensive overview of Mabo's legacy and the ongoing struggle for indigenous rights.

Indigenous health and culture

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HLSC120/HLSZ120 Indigenous Health and Culture - Assignment 2
Geeta Devi
Describe the obstacles and challenges faced by Mabo and other indigenous people as
‘their activism or campaign escalated.
Mabo, a person from Murray Islands in Torres Strait who started doing various
laboring jobs in 1957 comprising laying railways, cutting cane and only type of work
available to Torres Strait Islanders in the 1950s. But later Mabo started being a gardener at
James Cook University at Townsville in Queensland 1974. Townsville is a place where he
thought of the greatest prejudice where persons had ever been exposed to ‘Terra Nullius’. It is
land concerning to no-one when he got himself intricate in a conversation with 2 researchers
(Mabo, 2020).
Mabo explained his dream of ending his days on Murray Islet, which is on the
inherited land. This land had been handed down by his family for fifteen generations.
Mabo faced the first challenge as he was not refined at all. At the age of 31, he went
to attain an education and become avantgarde for black rights and functioned with the
communal to ensure Aboriginal children had their schools (Mabo, 2020).
Mabo discovered the finest system to attain people’s assistance to collaborate with the
persons of the communist party. It is the only white political party to assist Aboriginal's
campaigns at the time. Mabo won that challenge and proved to become a leader. Mabo
appealed, electioneered and interrogated Terra Nullius for eighteen years.
In 1982, the campaign worsened between Eddie Koiki Mabo and 4 of the colleagues
of Papua New Guinea and Australia. The High court necessitated the Supreme Court of
Queensland to regulate the evidence on which the case has relied. Although the case was with
Queensland court, the State parliament agreed with the Torres Strait Islands Act which
specified ‘any privileges which Torres Strait Islanders had to land after the privilege of the
dominion in 1879 is quenched without reward. The Torres Strait Islands Act aimed to
eliminate inherent title rights by Torres Strait Islanders to islands off the coast of Queensland
majorly Murray Island that was led by Mabo (Opac, 2017). It resulted in becoming another
challenge for Mabo and his followers to overwhelmed.

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Mabo had to challenge such regulation to the High Court and the decision, in this
case, is identified as Mabo No.1. It was the act that was in a struggle with the Commonwealth
Racial Discrimination Act of 1975 and was therefore illegal. For Mabo, the case was not the
only private challenge but financial also. Mabo consistently spent most of the 1980s as
unemployed and regularly traveled between Torres Strait, Townsville, and Brisbane
(Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1995).
In 1992, after ten years of the court hearing, 6 of the judges approved that the Meriam
individuals had traditional possession of their land. The judges apprehended that British
ownership had not eradicated their title and Meriam people were enabled as against the
complete world to occupation, ownership, usage, and pleasure of the lands of Murray Islands.
In 1992, the Australian High court upturned over two hundred years of white domination of
land ownership. Miserably, Mabo never had been successful in discovering the outcome of
his legal case. Mabo died in 1992, five months before the decision of High Court. The
decision of Mabo transformed the substance of land law in Australia by upending the doctrine
of Terra Nullius on which British claims to possession of Australia were based.

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References
Australian Bureau of Statistics (1995). The Mabo Case and The Native Title Act. Retrieved
April 6, 2020 from
https://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/abs@.nsf/Previousproducts/1301.0Feature
%20Article21995
Mabo (2020). Mabo The Native Title Revolution. Retrieved April 6, 2020 from
http://www.mabonativetitle.com/theman_01.shtml
Mabo (2020). Mabo The Native title Revolution. Retrieved April 6, 2020 from
http://www.mabonativetitle.com/theman_06.shtml
Opac, 2017. The Mabo Oration. Retrieved April 6, 2020 from https://www.qpac.com.au/the-
creatory/read/the-mabo-oration/?
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