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Murray Island Courts found him guilty of drinking alcohol resulting in him being exiled for a year.
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Eddie Mabo was born on June 29th 1936, on Murray Island in Torres Strait. Sadly his mother passed away five days after birth and was adopted by his Uncle. His surname changed from Sambo to Mabo due to Islander customs.
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Born: 29 June 1936, Murray Island, Torres Strait Islands
Death: 21 January 1992, Queensland, Brisbane. Due to lung cancer. -
Eddie Mabo left Murray Island and moved to Townsville in Queensland. He held a variety of jobs such as working on fishing vessels then on a sugar cane field.
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Eddie Mabo married Bonita Nehow a South Sea Islander. They married in the Methodist Church at Ingham in North Queensland
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Mabo participated in community service. Such as being involved in Trade Union Politics, Indigenous Australian rights and services, and public events
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He became involved in Indigenous Australian rights and services from which he was a secretary of the Aborigines Advancement League for Queensland between 1962-1969.
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Worked for Townsville Harbour Board thus leading him up to be the Islander Representative for the Trades and Labour Council
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Became and activist for the 1967 Referendum Campaign
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Employed as a gardener at the James Cook University in Townsville. Became friends with academic staff and used the library to research non-aboriginal views of his land and culture. He studied Haddon’s six-volume Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits.
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Eddie Mabo became the president in the all-black council for the Rights of Indigenous People.
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Was employed as the assistant vocational officer
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Set up the Black Community School in Townsville as Eddie Mabo was concerned that Indigenous children were losing touch with their roots and culture. He was the director of the school while is lasted.
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With a conversation with Henry Reynolds and James Cook University Historians, came to the realisation that the Indigenous Australians on Murray Island were not the inherited owners of the island. Which shocked Eddie Mabo.
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Was a member of the Australia Council for the Arts because as he was a talented performer for the Torres Strait Islander music and dance.
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The all black school led to Eddie Mabo participating in the Nation Aboriginal Education Committee
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Was the president of the Yumba Meta Housing Association Ltd. The association provided houses in Townsville for Indigenous Australians
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Eddie Mabo joined forces with the James Cook University Students and held a conference called the "Land Rights and the Future of Australian Race Relations". The conference attracted lawyers. In the end it was suggested to Mabo that he should take his case of Murray Islander's owning their land to the High Courts of Australia.
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Eddie Mabo plans to challenge his land rights case to the High Courts along with Mabo, Sam Passi, David Passi, Celuia Mapo Salee, and James Rice. At the time Queensland introduced legalisation which stopped Indigenous Australians having a title to their land.
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The High Court ruled in Mabo v Qld (No.1) that the Queensland Coast Islands Declaratory Act 1985 (Qld) was incompatible with the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth).
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Eddie Mabos passes away due to lung cancer.
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The High Court overturned the legal doctrine of terra nullius 'land belonging to nothing, no one' delivering a verdict in favour of the Murray Islanders in Mabo v Qld (No. 2).
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Eddie Mabo was awarded the Australia Human Rights Medal.
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Was recognised as the Australian of The Year for 1992.
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TCU Library, Townsville, is officially named the Eddie Koiki Mabo Library.
