Mabo name lives on at JCU
James Cook University will name its main Library on its Townsville Campus after the man who led the fight to change the basic land laws of Australia.
“To reinforce our commitment to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia and give it a permanent marker we will be naming the Library on the Douglas Campus after one of the most important historical figures to have spent time at JCU,” Vice Chancellor Professor Sandra Harding said today.
“The Eddie Koiki Mabo Library will forever commemorate the link between the man who changed the land laws of Australia and James Cook University.”
Professor Harding said that although Eddie Mabo came to JCU to work as a gardener he would sit in on lectures and became a regular in the library because he understood that the University was one of the places where he could learn how white people were so powerful.
The naming ceremony will be performed by the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, on May 21 and the Minister will later deliver the annual Mabo Lecture at the University.
The University will also be launching its Reconciliation Statement at the ceremony.
Members of the Mabo family will be in attendance along with members of the broader community. Part of the ceremony will be the Koiki Dance Performance, which is part of a production written and produced by Eddie Mabo’s daughter Gail in memory of her father.
It was in a conversation with Professor Henry Reynolds and another JCU staff member, Associate Professor Noel Loos, that Eddie Koiki Mabo first found out that his land back on the island of Mer in the Torres Strait was legally considered to be Crown land.
At a Land Rights conference at JCU in 1981, Eddie Koiki Mabo spelt out what land ownership and land inheritance was all about on Mer and that led to the long battle through the courts to have traditional ownership recognized.
It culminated in the 1992 High Court decision that bears his name and which overturned terra nullius (no mans land) that underpinned the Crown’s claim to own all the land of Australia.
“Sadly, Eddie Koiki Mabo did not live to see the outcome of his personal commitment to his people and to the land, but his name is forever linked with a profound change in Australian history,” Professor Harding said.
“It is right and proper that we should acknowledge the part the University played in Eddie Koiki Mabo’s heroic endeavours, and the Library where he spent so many hours is the fitting place for that recognition,” Professor Harding said. “There will also be a permanent memorial to him inside the library.”
As Professor Reynolds has written: “It is well known that the decision to pursue land rights through the courts was taken while Eddie was at the University and that his already great resolve was strengthened by support he received from staff and students alike.”
Professor Harding said that James Cook University through its people and place had strong links to the Indigenous peoples of Australia.
“Not only do we have one of the largest cohorts of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders students among Australian Universities, but we also have a particular mission to serve the tropics where one third of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population lives,” she said.
“In the Strategic Intent the University recently endorsed we included in our Values and Beliefs that: We are committed to working towards the achievement of genuine and sustainable reconciliation between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the wider community.”
Professor Harding said the Reconciliation Statement recently adopted by the JCU Council detailed how the University intended to meet that commitment.
Issued: May 9 2008
Contact: JCU Media Liaison, Jim O’Brien 07 4781 4822 or 0418 892449
