Edward Koiki Mabo Essay

Edward Koiki Mabo (Eddie) is a well-known Australian Indigenous person, who throughout his lifetime was committed to obtaining justice for Indigenous Australians. His greatest achievement was his stand against racial discrimination and his fight for Australian laws to recognise the traditional land rights of his family and the Meriam People of Murray Island. As a result, the doctrine of terra nullius, that claimed Australia was a land without owners, was overturned, changing Australian law forever, and the Native Title Act was introduced, which legally recognised the traditional land rights of Indigenous Australians.

Edward Mabo was born Edward Koiki Sambo, at Mer (Murray Island), in the Torres Straits on c. 29 June, 1936, and at that time

In the 1980’s, national campaigns for land rights laws began and Eddie spoke at a 1981 land rights conference on land rights in the Torres Straits. On hearing his speech, Lawyer, H. C. ‘Nugget’ Coombs, encouraged Eddie and other Meriam people to establish ownership of their lands through the High Court of Australia, and on 20 May 1982, Koiki and four other Meriam Men began their fight for ownership of their lands on Murray and Dauar Islands through the Australian High Court. Koiki was named the first plaintiff, so the case became known as the Mabo Case. Research grants from AIATSIS helped out with the case, but the Queensland Government introduced a sneaky new law in 1985 to crush their chances for native title. Koiki and his colleagues challenged this new law and won, as the High Court found in 1988, this new Queensland law breached Australian racial discrimination laws—Mabo v. Queensland [No. 1]. During this busy time Koiki also studied to be a Teacher and worked for the Aboriginal Legal Service and in Aboriginal Affairs, in his spare time, painting his beloved island home and relaxing on his

The community of Mer however, could prove that their traditional laws and customs, land occupation and inheritance, had continued on as it did before the white man came, and these hearings began in May, 1991. Sadly, Koiki did not live to continue this fight. He passed away on 21 January 1991, just four months before the hearings began, leaving the last two remaining plaintiffs to give evidence. To this day many believe Koiki’s death was caused from black magic, not cancer. On 3 June, 1992, the High Court’s decision favoured the Mer community, and Mabo v. Queensland [No. 2] overturned the doctrine of terra nullius, consequently introducing the Commonwealth Native Title Act 1993. Koiki’s role was integral in this landmark judgment, which became one of the most important judgments in Australian legal history and according to Barrister Keon-Cohen, junior counsel in both cases, “without Eddie Mabo there was no