Mabo - A Symbol of Struggle: The unfinished quest for Voice Treaty Truth
By Seán Flood
()
About this ebook
Thomas Keneally, author
Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes were the first sovereign nations of the Australian continent and its adjacent islands . . . This sovereignity is a spiritual notion: the ancestral tie between the land, or ‘mother nature’ . . .
ULURU STATEMENT FROM THE HEART, 26 MAY 2017
Mabo: A Symbol of Struggle is a new edition of Seán Flood’s book first published as Mabo: A Symbol of Sharing.
Written for the general reader, teachers and students the book begins with a plea for a Makarrata (Treaty) and ends with the Uluru Statement calling on the Australian Government for a First Nations’ traditional owners body, enshrined in the Australian Constitution, to consult on government legislation and policy affecting their issues such as culture, preservation of language, land management, native title and passive welfare.
The High Court Mabo decision is dealt with in an engaging and accessible way free of legal jargon. A chapter on the Nature of Native Title has insights from Aboriginal Elders like Pat Dodson and a moving account of connection to country by a blind Aboriginal woman in her seventies who had survived the Coniston massacre in 1927. The ongoing impact of colonialism on Australia’s natural environment is also included.
Native Title in the Courts Since Mabo is a Chapter written by lee Corbett PhD (UNSW) (Native Title and Constitutionalism in Australia), NSW Barrister, is a comprehensive summary of all the significant decisions since Mabo concluding with Warrie an important case involving Aboriginal Peoples’ relationship to country as essentially a ‘spiritual affair’ giving rise to exclusive possession rights.
While the author was writing the revision for this edition Michael Brown, an unarmed African American student, was shot and killed by a white police officer in Ferguson Missouri. This led Flood to narrate the treatment of the other today under ‘a white power structure treating blacks as second- class citizens’. Recent deaths of Aboriginal people in custody are examined and examples of beneficial agreements from native title processes that allow Indigenous Australians to become ‘active agents in (their) own development’ are included in Part II, The Impact of Colonialism.
Flood offers a strong case for the adoption of the Uluru Statement delivered to the Federal Government on the 26th May 2017 as a road map forward for First Nations to, in the words of Galarrwuy Yunupingu, ‘…be part of this nation…given an equal shot at the prosperity of this nation…unity and togetherness -a shared future…’ The unfinished quest for recognition.
Eight pages of colour references including the AIATSIS map of Indigenous Australian language groups, a Glossary of unfamiliar terms, Suggested Lines of Inquiry for Teachers and Students, Past exam questions, Recommended reading and viewing, Footnotes and 201 Endnotes.
‘Erudite and concise…a valuable contribution to broader public debate.’
Larissa Behrendt, Professor of Indigenous Research and Director of Research at Jumbunna House of Learning at UTS Sydney.
‘The message is simple and capable of healing racial disharmony.’
Dr Robert Bellear, Australia’s first Aboriginal judge (now sadly deceased).
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Mabo - A Symbol of Struggle - Seán Flood
About Mabo: A Symbol of Struggle
‘This book is more than a mere primer on the Mabo case and its results. It is an important and accessible reminder of the way Mabo pervades notions of the country and its very history, and of how it is changing the consciousness between white and black.’
Thomas Keneally, author
Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes were the first sovereign nations of the Australian continent and its adjacent islands … This sovereignity is a spiritual notion: the ancestral tie between the land, or ‘mother nature’ …
ULURU STATEMENT FROM THE HEART, 26 MAY 2017
Mabo: A Symbol of Struggle is a new edition of Seán Flood’s book first published as Mabo: A Symbol of Sharing.
Written for the general reader, teachers and students the book begins with a plea for a Makarrata (Treaty) and ends with the Uluru Statement calling on the Australian Government for a First Nations’ traditional owners body, enshrined in the Australian Constitution, to consult on government legislation and policy affecting their issues such as culture, preservation of language, land management, native title and passive welfare.
The High Court Mabo decision is dealt with in an engaging and accessible way free of legal jargon. A chapter on the Nature of Native Title has insights from Aboriginal Elders like Pat Dodson and a moving account of connection to country by a blind Aboriginal woman in her seventies who had survived the Coniston massacre in 1927. The ongoing impact of colonialism on Australia’s natural environment is also included.
Native Title in the Courts Since Mabo is a Chapter written by lee Corbett PhD (UNSW) (Native Title and Constitutionalism in Australia), NSW Barrister, is a comprehensive summary of all the significant decisions since Mabo concluding with Warrie an important case involving Aboriginal Peoples’ relationship to country as essentially a ‘spiritual affair’ giving rise to exclusive possession rights.
While the author was writing the revision for this edition Michael Brown, an unarmed African American student, was shot and killed by a white police officer in Ferguson Missouri. This led Flood to narrate the treatment of the other today under ‘a white power structure treating blacks as second- class citizens’. Recent deaths of Aboriginal people in custody are examined and examples of beneficial agreements from native title processes that allow Indigenous Australians to become ‘active agents in (their) own development’ are included in Part II, The Impact of Colonialism.
Flood offers a strong case for the adoption of the Uluru Statement delivered to the Federal Government on the 26th May 2017 as a road map forward for First Nations to, in the words of Galarrwuy Yunupingu, ‘…be part of this nation…given an equal shot at the prosperity of this nation…unity and togetherness -a shared future…’ The unfinished quest for recognition.
Eight pages of colour references including the AIATSIS map of Indigenous Australian language groups, a Glossary of unfamiliar terms, Suggested Lines of Inquiry for Teachers and Students, Past exam questions, Recommended reading and viewing, Footnotes and 201 Endnotes.
‘Erudite and concise…a valuable contribution to broader public debate.’
Larissa Behrendt, Professor of Indigenous Research and Director of Research at Jumbunna House of Learning at UTS Sydney.
‘The message is simple and capable of healing racial disharmony.’
Dr Robert Bellear, Australia’s first Aboriginal judge (now sadly deceased).
‘An excellent resource for teachers…(of) Aboriginal Studies and Legal Studies. The Suggested Lines of Inquiry are great tools for teachers to use.’
Jan Ryan, Aboriginal Education Coordinator, Tweed River High School
‘This book is a ‘must have’ for Australian History/Studies, Aboriginal Studies and Legal Studies classes in secondary school and early tertiary sector.’
Jack Humphreys, South Australian Institute of Teachers Journal
MABO
A SYMBOL OF STRUGGLE
The unfinished quest for Voice Treaty Truth
With a Section for Students and Teachers
2021 Edition
Seán Flood
EDITED BY BRIGID McMANUS
Oh my home, my beautiful home.
Torres Strait Islanders’ Song
[sung while exiled to mainland Australia]
Extinguishment of traditional title is
extinguishment of traditional culture.
Noel Pearson
I acknowledge with respect the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the original owners and custodians of the country now known as Australia and its islands, seas, rivers, lakes, lagoons, sky, flora and fauna. Your attachment to your lands is a spiritual notion: the ancestral tie between the land, or ‘mother nature’…This link is the basis of the ownership of the soil, or better, of sovereignty.
* You fished, nurtured and cared for your homelands for 65,000 and more years† yet your existence on your country was denied. You sing and dance your country and for millennia you have told your stories under the stars. Your art has worldwide acclaim.
Your nations were invaded by the British colonists and illegally taken by force of arms; your sovereignty ignored without Makarrata (Treaty) or recompense. The invaders’ lie was that you merely wandered over your lands. You were dispossessed and forced to the margins where you suffered impoverishment and loss of connection to your cultural heritage, your homelands, your mother the earth on which you were born.
Senator Neville Bonner (Federal Liberal MP), and first Aboriginal member of the Commonwealth parliament, on the 19th September 1974 asked the Senate to pass a motion calling on the government for compensation for the dispossession of the lands of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.
In his speech to the motion, referencing Martin Luther King, he said:
… I also have a vision – a vision in which I see all Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders walking tall in the knowledge that their dignity has been restored by their learning that what was once ours has been recognised as ours but forcibly taken and now compensated for … I am asking for compensation for our enforced disintegration (Hansard, 1267–1273).
The motion was carried but nothing was done to enact legislation to achieve its clear intent.
While the vision is yet to be achieved, Mabo restored a measure of justice and native title a measure of land equality for some.
Without a Makarrata and meaningful constitutional empowerment your polity is incomplete. No half measures will suffice.
The struggle goes on …
June 2018
* The ULURU STATEMENT FROM THE HEART.
† See Clarkson et al ., Human occupation of northen Australia by 65,000 years ago. Nature 547, 306–310 (20 July 2017) doi: 10.1038/nature22968. Recieved 30 November 2016. Accepted 19 May 2017. Published online 19 July 2017. Findings of a DNA study that the ancestors of modern Australian Aboriginal People separated from other populations 64,000 to 75,000 years ago and spread to Australia by at least 50,000 years BP (Before Present).
See: Rasmussen et al., 2011, ‘An Aboriginal Genome Reveals Separate Human Dispersals into Asia’, Science, 334(6052): 94–98. doi:10.1126/science.1211177
For Elizabeth Fink and Matthew, Seán, Jessica and Kate Flood. Also Kate George, my mentor, who gave me knowledge and awareness of Australia’s Indigenous peoples, their cultures, their plight and their struggle for recognition in their own country.
This edition is dedicated to the memory of the Honourable Edward Gough Whitlam AC QC (11 July 1916–21 October 2014) who changed Australia and made Mabo possible.
Acknowledgements
I would like to acknowledge Eddie Mabo (1936–1992), Father Dave Passi and James Rice, who were the claimants who represented the Meriam people in the High Court of Australia; Judith Wright for permission to quote from The Cry for the Dead; Oodgeroo Noonuccal (1920–1993), custodian of the land Minjerribah, for lines from her poem ‘Let Us Not Be Bitter’, published in My People; and Jacaranda Wiley Ltd and Black Inc for selected quotations from A Rightful Place: Race Recognition and a More Complete Commonwealth, Quarterly Essay (2014) 55 by Noel Pearson.
Contents
About Mabo: A Symbol of Struggle
Title Page
Epigraph
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Author’s Note
PART I
Before Mabo
Mabo Examined
The Native Title Act 1993 (Cth)
The Nature of Native Title
Native Title in the Courts Since Mabo
PART II
The Impact of Colonialism
The Struggle
Ironic Benefits
A Question of Recognition
Glossary
Suggested Lines of Inquiry for Teachers and Students
Past NSW HSC questions
Recommended – Reading and Viewing
Endnotes
About Seán Flood
Also by Seán Flood
Copyright
Foreword
Seán Flood has had a long involvement with the Aboriginal legal service. He became engaged in this work out of a deep sense of commitment to the rights of Aboriginal people. A barrister by profession, Seán Flood has had considerable experience as a legal advocate defending the rights of the Aboriginal people. In this publication, ‘Mabo: A Symbol of Sharing’, Flood’s sense of duty and responsibility towards our indigenous people resonates unmistakably. Flood expounds radical points of view in his work and without in any way endorsing or rejecting them – for it would not be appropriate for me to do so in this office – his work will undoubtedly stimulate further discussion on a matter of great contemporary interest.
Bill Hayden
Governor-General, Commonwealth of Australia
28 September 1993
Foreword to the 2nd edition
Author’s Note
One of my personal regrets is that I was 35 years old before I had the good fortune to truly know an Indigenous Australian. It was during the heady days of the Whitlam government that I was introduced to Kate George, then a law student, now the first Aboriginal woman admitted to practise law in Western Australia.
I first learned directly about Aboriginal life through the Koori people of Wreck Bay, past and present, who welcomed me into their community in the 1970s when I was the Aboriginal Legal Service (ALS) barrister for the New South Wales South Coast. I would like to thank Paul Mcleod of Wreck Bay who travelled with me as a young boy while