On Tuesday 30 May, our school community held their annual Sorry Day and Mabo Day assembly. This assembly provides a time of reflection and is an active step in educating people on the importance of reconciliation. Below, is an excerpt from the assembly presented by Charli (Year 11) and Frances (Year 9). Both students share what ‘home’ means to them and their connection to country. Listeners were then treated to an overview of the importance of Mabo Day and the significant impact Eddie ‘Koiki’ Mabo’s advocacy has had on society.
“Reconciliation week is a crucial part of our calendar. It is strongly rooted in the places we grew up in. Our elders taught us the importance of uniting together as one and as such we invited a few First Nations students from across all grades to share a little bit about their “Home” and why it is significant. They had to write a reflection on what home means to them, including sharing pictures of home. These are displayed in the Chapel for other students to read and then for them to write their own thoughts in response.
The importance and power of feeling at home:
My name is Frances and I am in Year 9. I am a proud Murray Island, Gudang Yadhaykenu, Wuthuthi woman. Murray Island is located in the Torres Straits. Wuthuthi tribe is located in Shelburne Bay and the Gudang Yadhaykenu tribe is located in Cape York.
Despite this, my home is Thursday Island, but I currently live in Weipa. My blood line streams from all over Queensland but where I live doesn’t necessarily mean that’s where I feel the most secure. Home is crucial as it allows for me to feel connected to the land and the sea. Knowing that I’m on my home country fills me with pride and certainty. I love the small moments I am able to experience. Such as flying back to Thursday Island. Going hunting, spear fishing and eating traditional food whilst performing traditional dances. Creating core memories like this, always make me feel like I belong.
My name is Charli and I am in Year 11. When I go home, it’s an easy way to feel grounded. You learn to realise what truly matters. Home to me has a sense of security. It’s where I feel the most connected. The most centred with myself and sure of my identity. There are 2 separate definitions in my opinion.
- Home can be a physical place
- Or home can be metaphorical. A feeling, that you find in someone else.
Home is not necessarily where you are from. I grew up in the Torres Strait, lived on Moa Island for 4 years then on Thursday Island for the remaining of my life. It is beautiful. I am passionate about the ways of living, the rich culture, and the exquisite history. It’s a place of comfort. A place where I feel the most at peace. Home is where you feel you belong. Some of us travel the whole world to find it. Others, find it in a person. My family are the people I confine in. The people who’ve seen me at my highest and lowest points of my life but loved me regardless. Strengthening me encouraging me and supporting me to always strive for more. Home is 2 things but falls under one category. Love.
Historically, home to us, wasn’t always ours. Our ancestors were restricted in what they were and not allowed to do upon their traditional land. Our Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents and even parents often had feelings of dispossession from their own country.
However, silence has never made history. All it takes is one voice to implement change. Followed by a group of supporters, who share the same vision. Eddie Mabo and his plaintiffs collectively came together to demolish the notion of Terra Nullius. Terra Nullius is the assumption that upon arrival to Australia, the land belonged to no one. Insinuating that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people weren’t considered a part of this Nation. And that ultimately the land we live, laugh and learn on is owned by the government.
Who is Eddie Mabo?
Eddie ‘Koiki’ Mabo was born on 29 June 1936, in the community of Las on Mer, known as Murray Island in the Torres Strait. His birth name was Eddie Koiki Sambo; however, he was raised by his Uncle Benny Mabo through a customary ‘Island adoption’. When Eddie was growing up, life for the people of the Torres Strait Islands was strictly regulated with laws made by the Queensland Government. However, the Meriam people strived to maintain continuity with the past and lived a traditional lifestyle based on fishing, gardening, and customary laws of inheritance. At the age of 16, Eddie was exiled from Murray Island for breaking customary Island law, and he set off for the mainland where a new life was waiting for him.
Eddie had many jobs throughout his life, including an assistant teacher; a deckhand on pearl lugger and tugboats; a fettler on the Queensland railway tracks; a cane cutter; and a groundskeeper. It was during his time as a groundskeeper at James Cook University in Townsville that Eddie learned about Australian land ownership laws. He believed the land he grew up on, Murray Island, belonged to the Torres Strait Islander people who had lived there for thousands of years. But Australian law stated that the Government owned the land. Eddie believed that these laws on land ownership were wrong and decided to fight to change them. In 1981, Eddie Mabo made a speech at James Cook University in Queensland, where he explained his people’s beliefs about the ownership and inheritance of land on Murray Island. A lawyer heard the speech and asked Eddie if he would like to challenge the Australian Government through the court system to decide who the true owner of land on Murray Island was—his people or the Australian Government. Eddie did not live to see the final decision passed down from the High Court. Ten years after the case was first heard, at the age of 55, Eddie sadly passed away from cancer. Five months later the High Court ruled in the plaintiff’s favour, expelling the notion of terra nullius from Australian law and paving the way for the creation of land rights legislation called Native Title.
In 1992, Eddie was posthumously awarded the Australian Human Rights Medal by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and in 1993, the Australian newspaper named Eddie the Australian of the Year for 1992. Three years after Eddie passed away, a traditional Torres Strait Islander memorial service known as a tombstone opening was conducted in Townsville. The very next day, his gravesite was vandalised with racist emblems and his tombstone partially destroyed. Due to this vandalism, Eddie was reburied on Murray Island, where he was given the traditional burial ceremony of a Meriam King, the first performed in over 80 years.
What is Mabo day?
Mabo day commemorates how Eddie demonstrated initiative, originality, determination, intelligence, and commitment to obtaining justice for Indigenous Australians and recognition of the traditional land rights of his family and people. Across many regions of Queensland, 3rd June—known as Mabo Day—has been declared a bank holiday. It is a day of recognition, reconciliation as well as healing.
The Mabo decision was a turning point for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' rights as it acknowledged their unique connection with the land. Eddie 'Koiki' Mabo is one of Australia's greatest heroes. Not just because he fought tirelessly to end discrimination of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, but because in doing so he gave all of us the belief in a fairer and more just country.”