Mabo: Life of an Island Man docudrama
Dates
Sunday 5 June | 2pm – 4pm
Free screening | No bookings required
*Admission fees apply for WA Maritime Museum
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Join us for a launch weekend screening of Mabo: Life of an Island Man, as we celebrate the rich traditions of the Torres Strait Islands with the new exhibition, Evolution: Torres Strait Masks.
Friday 3 June marks the 30th anniversary of the 1992 Mabo Decision. This date commemorates Mer Island man Eddie Koiki Mabo and his successful efforts to overturn the legal concept of terra nullis, or 'land belonging to no-one', stripping Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of their traditional rights to their lands.
This landmark legal challenge changed the landscape for reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians, beginning a new chapter through recognizing the heritage and culture of the traditional custodians of this land.
Mabo: Life of an Island Man (1997)
Rated G
87-minute duration
Mabo: Life of an Island Man is the story of a small island and an extraordinary man. Eddie Koiki Mabo was born on Murray Island in the Torres Strait, but lived most of his life in exile. Only after his death did the island wholeheartedly welcome him home. By then the island and Eddie, between them, had changed the legal and political landscape of Australia.
On Friday 3 June 1992, six months after Eddie Mabo's tragic death, the High Court of Australia upheld his claim that Murray Islanders held "native title" to three islands on the eastern fringe of the Torres Strait.
Aboriginal and Islander communities across Australia greeted the Mabo judgement with jubilation. The legal fiction that Australia was an empty land when first occupied by white people had been laid to rest - by the highest court in the land. After more than 200 years of struggle, European law was at last coming to grips with pre-existing indigenous law.
Mabo: Life of an Island Man is a film about Eddie Koiki Mabo, the public and the private man.
A Film Australia National Interest Program. Produced with the assistance of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. © 2011 National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.
Related exhibitions
Explore an exciting exhibition from time immemorial when masks were used in ceremonial rituals throughout the 274 islands that spread across some 48,000 square kilometres.
