Beckett, Jeremy --- "Obituary: Eddie Koiki Mabo, 1936-1992" [1992] AboriginalLawB 1; (1992) 1(54) Aboriginal Law Bulletin 2

• Obituary: Eddie Koiki Mabo, 1936-1992

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Obituary: Eddie Koiki Mabo, 1936-1992

Koiki Mabo has an assured place in the history of indigenous land rights as the principal litigant in the case brought by a group of Meriam (Murray Islanders) against the Queensland and Federal Governments. This case, which has been awaiting a decision since 1982, claimed that the land that the Meriam had occupied from time immemorial belonged to them, rather than, as Australian law proclaimed, to the Crown.

Koiki was born in 1936, on the island of Mer or Murray Island in Eastern Torres Strait. Both his parents were Meriam and, like many Torres Strait children, he was adopted as an infant by another Meriam couple. Growing up on the island, at a time when contacts with the outside world were limited, he left for the mainland in his late teens. He was not to return for eighteen years, not of his own volition, but because local authorities - fearful that he had been influenced by radicals - excluded him.

Although stranded on the mainland, Koiki held fast to his Meriam identity, building on what he had learned as a boy by talking to other, older emigrants, and by studying books about the Strait. His extensive and detailed knowledge of Meriam lore was to stand him in good stead when he came to give evidence in the Supreme Court.

During the 1970's Koiki was active in Aboriginal and Islander affairs in Townsville, where he lived with his wife Netta and their children. He was the principal mover behind the Black Community School, and took a leading part in its management, until the withdrawal of government funds resulted in its closure. His interest in education also led him to complete a teacher training course in Townsville.

It was at a conference on Torres Strait in 1981 that the plan for the 'Mabo case' was formed. Koiki was now able to return to Mer, and on one visit he persuaded three others to join with him. Koiki declared that he and Netta would return to live on Mer as soon as the case was decided. In anticipation, they built a bamboo and palm-leaf house on his adoptive parents' land on Mer, living there for periods while the law ran its leisurely course. Sadly, cancer was diagnosed in 1991, and Koiki Mabo died this January in a Brisbane hospital. A decision in the Mabo case is still pending.

Jeremy Beckett, University of Sydney.