Eddie Mabo Essay

The late Eddie Mabo was an Australian man from the Torres Strait Islands. He was known for his role in campaigning for Indigenous land rights, and also his role in a landmark decision of the High Court of Australia. Eddie Mabo was born on the Mer Island on June 29, 1936. When his mother died giving birth, he was adopted by his aunt and uncle who changed his last name to Mabo. As a child, Eddie was taught about his family’s land in the Torres Strait Islands of Australia. When Eddie grew up he moved to Queensland, Australia, and worked a couple of odd jobs until he found his calling to be a school teacher, specifically teaching black indigenous Australian kids. The school he taught at was co-founded by Mabo and was called the black community school, located in Townsville. In 1981, Mabo gave his first speech on explaining the traditional land

It was then that a lawyer in the crowd noticed a significance in Mabo’s speech and story. The lawyer suggested that there should be a test case to claim the land mabo believed he deserved and to claim land rights through the court system. Greg Mcintyre agreed to take the case, and as soon as word got out, other people wanted to claim their own land as well. Because of the multiple people that wanted the same thing under the same trial, the case was recognized as the ‘Mabo Case’. Mabo wanted to claim the land because he truly believed that it belonged to him. He grew up hearing stories about how the land belonged to his ancestors and even recent family members. Well, court systems don’t rely on stories from ancestors and family members as evidence, so he had some trouble there. But Mabo realized that other people were