2 minute read
Coming of the Light
Mabo Day
Mabo Day on 3 June 2022 marked the 30th anniversary of the High Court Mabo Decision. Week-long celebrations to commemorate this significant milestone for all Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people were held on Mer, the home of native title.
On 3 June 1992, the High Court of Australia ruled in favour of the Mabo plaintiffs, the late Eddie Koiki Mabo, Celuia Mapo Salee, Deacon Sam Passi, James Rice and Reverend Dave Passi, who filed in the courts for recognition of Indigenous land rights. The Mabo Decision recognised for the first time in Australian law, the rights of Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal peoples to their land, based on the traditional connection to and occupation of Country. The decision overturned the notion that Australia was ‘terra nullius’ or land belonging to no one. The following year the Australian Parliament passed the Native Title Act 1993
to create a system for Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal peoples to claim native title over their lands.
Mayor Mosby and Cr Hilda Mosby attended the Mabo Day celebrations on Mer, which began by honouring the plaintiffs at their final resting place. A procession took place in the eight tribal groups of Mer and the Dauareb tribe to the Mabo Day Cultural Village and was followed by a ceremony raising the tribal flags and the Mer flag, to the Mer national anthem.
Elder Ron Day said in his speech: ‘Koiki Mabo is a product of Mer’ and with the same zeal the plaintiffs had to squash the British Empire’s notion of ‘terra nullius’ and turn native title from lore to law almost four decades ago. The people of Mabo launched the Mabo Statement affirming their sovereign title to individual parcels of land and territorial waters of the Murray Islands, to finish what Koiki Mabo and the plaintiffs started. Traditional feast and island dancing completed this historic milestone.
Patty Mills signing autographs Images courtesy of Justin McManus
Young future leader Images courtesy of Justin McManus
