Mabo Day on Thursday Island
THURSDAY ISLAND — Getano Lui, chair of the Islands Coordinating Commission, and Pedro Stephens, mayor of Thursday Island, proclaimed June 3 a public holiday to commemorate the 1992 Mabo ruling. This High Court decision revoked "terra nullius", the legal fiction that Australia was uninhabited before European settlement, and returned Mer (Murray Island) to the Merians.
Koiki Mabo was honoured for his 10-year struggle to raise money and appeal the court decisions. According to Doug Ben, a Mer council elder, Mabo "died in poverty".
A demonstration of 200 people led by warriors and boys in the traditional lava lavas chanted songs. "This is our land. We're going to take it back!", announced a warrior to the onlookers.
George Mye, commissioner for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Commission, recited a poem, "Who was that boy?", written about Eddy Mabo. His voice quivered as he wiped the tears from his eyes.
Stephens declared "Nobody can move you me", to loud applause from the gathering. Ben Nona, a Torres Strait Islander youth in his warrior outfit, reminded those assembled that it was only in 1967 that a referendum gave indigenous people the vote, thereby identifying them as "human beings".
Lui said that the Regional Authority was a step to self-government while another speaker argued, "We have to set up our own systems ... We will write out own constitution."
A feast, to which everyone was invited, was held in Tamwoy, an Islander suburb. Three shelters had been constructed from bamboo and coconut leaves. An octopus made of fruits, flowers and leaves adorned the "body" while eight rows of tables, representing the eight tribes of Mer, became its "tentacles".
Traditional Mer dancing followed, and the event closed with Island Cousins jiving the crowd with their contemporary Island music.