Mabo Day in Australia
Description:
Leading the traditional nomadic lifestyle of hunter-gatherers, men hunted large animals; women and children were engaged in collecting fruits and berries, and on occasion, hunting small animals.
Like many other indigenous peoples who lived in harmony with nature, the land not only provided the aborigines with a livelihood, but also served as the center of their spiritual life, a source of identity. It was believed that through the earth the world of living is inextricably linked with the world of ancestors.
At the household level, land was not in individual, but in public ownership, where the right of ownership primarily meant not the right of residence or use for economic gain, but responsibility for its “ritual possession” and for all life on it. The boundaries of such possessions served as natural landmarks - rivers, lakes and mountains. It was believed that land could not be sold, bought or donated.
Lacking a written language, Aborigines passed on laws and traditions to succeeding generations through song, dance, painting and oral storytelling.
At the same time, under the international laws of the eighteenth century, in the absence of obvious social and political systems, the newly “discovered” lands were recognized as terra nullius (“no man’s land”) and passed into the ownership of the state that “discovered” these lands.
Although the British government did not deny the presence of indigenous peoples in Australia, it was believed that the Aborigines and inhabitants of the Toressa Islands were too primitive to own land in the European sense of the word. In addition, the first settlers did not find among the natives the usual European governing bodies with which the British government could negotiate the acquisition of land.
In the end, the Aboriginal people were powerless against firearms and European diseases, although they continued to defend their rights in varying degrees for the next 200 years.
The pinnacle of this struggle was a lawsuit filed by Eddie Mabo, David Passy and James Rice of the Meriam tribe from Mary Island in the Toressa Strait to the Supreme Court of Australia in 1982. The defendant was Queensland, which annexed the islands in 1879.
The plaintiffs sought to establish the rightful owners of the islands of Mer, Daur and Weyer, the traditional habitat of the Meriam tribe.
In its judgment of 3 June 1992, the Supreme Court found that, in pre-colonial times, indigenous peoples owned land under traditional law, which in fact still exists today. The myth of the “nothing” of Australian territories was finally destroyed.
The Supreme Court affirmed the right of Aboriginal and Toressa Islanders to own and use land in their traditional habitats. This right was called the Native Title, under which state governments interested in acquiring rights to develop natural resources were obliged to pay compensation to traditional owners.
To commemorate this event, June 3 was declared Mabo Day. Mabo Day is most widely celebrated in places of traditional residence of the indigenous population, and on the islands of Toressa this day is a holiday.
Unfortunately, Eddie Mabo didn't live to see it. In January 1992, he died at the age of 56.