Bonita Mabo MOTHER of NATIVE TITLE
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Elimatta Aboriginal Support Group - Manly Warringah Pittwater NEWSLETTER SUMMER 2018 BENNELONG GRAVESITE SAVED BONITA MABO MOTHER OF NATIVE TITLE YABUN 26TH JANUARY 2019 WILL YOU BE THERE? ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER READERS ARE ADVISED THAT THIS NEWSLETTER CONTAIN NAMES OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE DIED ASG ACKNOWLEDGES THE GURINGAI PEOPLE, THE TRADITIONAL OWNERS OF THE LANDS AND THE WATERSTHE OF MAGAZINIA THIS AREA | -1- BONITA MABO Mother of Native Title INDIGENOUS activist Dr Ernestine ‘Bonita’ Mabo AO has been remembered as the ‘mother of native title’ and ‘matriarch of reconciliation’ ONITA MABO, commissioner June Oscar re- It closed in 1985 due to a lack of “[I was] disappointed he wasn’t Prominent membered her as “the mother of funding. there … for the judgement to Indigenous and South native title”. The Mabo decision come down early enough. Sea Islander rights ac- B “She was a woman of great Eddie Mabo spent a decade “But on his deathbed he knew tivist Bonita Mabo has died strength. She was gentle, stoic and he kept saying: ‘when I win days after receiving accolade. fighting for official recognition and loving,” Ms Oscar said in a of his people’s ownership of Mer the case, when I win the case’.” Mabo was the wife of statement. Eddie Mabo and worked Island in the Torres Strait. Recognising South Sea Islanders alongside him in the pursuit “I will always remember her as Space to play or pause, M to In recent years, Mabo had been of Indigenous land rights. the mother of native title. Her mute, left and right arrows to fighting for South Sea Islanders Just days ago she was award- legacy lives on in our continuing seek, up and down arrows for to be recognised in Australia as ed an Honorary Doctorate fight for land and sea rights.” volume their own distinct ethnic group. of Letters from James Cook Indigenous education was a life- Her husband did not live to see She was recognised in the Order University for her contribu- long passion the result, but in 1992 Bonita of Australia in 2013 for “distin- tion to social justice and human Mabo was a Malanbarra woman Mabo was making her way from guished service to the Indige- rights. and a descendant of Vanuatuan North Queensland to Canberra nous community and to human “It’s a big loss for us all,” Indige- workers brought to Queensland when the landmark decision was rights”. nous WA senator Patrick Dod- to work on sugar plantations. handed down. “I feel so honoured to be part of son said. She was born near Ingham in In 2017, she recalled that mo- it,” Mabo said at the time. “I think Australia needs to hon- North Queensland and married ment. Mabo was often asked about our people like Mrs Mabo who Eddie in 1959. “We were just outside of Sydney her work with Eddie, but while stood, to some degree, in the The couple had 10 children and and we stopped and pulled up on speaking about the Order of shadows of her husband, but Indigenous education became the side of the road and Malita Australia, she said she made sure who was the backbone and the one of Mabo’s lifelong passions. rang us and said ‘dad won the to tell people: “Well, I’ve got an- steel that helped he and many Bonita Mabo has received one decision, won the case’,” she said. other side too.” others to continue the struggles. of James Cook University’s high- “And we just jumped out and we “I’m a South Sea Islander “A person of great note; a great est awards, an Honorary Doctor just hugged each other. descendent. My great grand- Australian and great contribu- of Letters, in recognition of her RIP Bonita Mabo. Eddie and father came from the Tanna Is- tion to the cause of justice to all. outstanding contribution to the Bonita’s fight and victory re- lands and was stolen out here … “It’s a sad day. It’s a big loss for communityIn the early 1970s, made our world & secured rights to come and clean the country all of us. But she is a person who she set up Australia’s first Ab- unimaginable for 200 years. up here,” she said. comes in the vain of the very re- original community school and Condolences to family and Mer “And well, when I start saying cent recognition that ‘because of worked as a teacher’s aide. Nations. that, they sit up and listen.” her, we can do things’.” “For black children … we could “We were proud as punch.” Jackie Huggins, co-chair of the In a statement, The Australian see how they were … they used National Congress of Australia’s to go to school and they’d get The Mabo case was legally sig- South Sea Islander Alliance said nificant in Australia because it First People’s, said Mabo was “a she would “be greatly missed”. blamed for different things,” she mother to all of us in the political said in a 2013 interview. ruled the lands of this continent “Aunty Bonita’s contribution to were not “terra nullius” or “land struggle”. social justice and human rights “I used to go up to the school and belonging to no-one” when Eu- “She left a legacy of great com- for First Nations People and the I used to have arguments with ropean settlement occurred. passion, of being the woman Australian South Sea Islander the teachers and many times who was behind Eddie Mabo, they cried and I didn’t care be- It found the Meriam people, tra- recognition was monumental ditional owners of the Murray her husband, in his fight for jus- and relentless,” the statement cause I’d said what I’d wanted to tice and human rights,” she said. say.” Islands, including the islands of read. Mer, Dauer and Waier, were “en- “She was also an activist in her “A formidable ‘Woman Tanna’, The Black Community School titled against the whole world to own right. started in Townsville with 10 Aunty Bonita will be greatly possession” of the lands. “She was a great legend across missed as Australia has lost one students and two teachers who volunteered for half pay. The case paved the way for the this whole nation. of the greatest matriarchs of all Native Title Act of 1993. time.” The school taught children to “Like her husband, her legacy In an interview with the ABC in will always live on.” We lost a great soul. She fought read and write, and Torres Strait Islander history and culture. 2013, Mabo said she had to be for our peoples and our rights, there for her husband “all the Aunty Bonita Mabo will be sore- At its peak in the late 1970s, 45 way”. ISABELLA HIGGINS ly missed Aboriginal and Tor- students were enrolled at the res Strait Islander social justice school. “Thick or thin, we made it,” she INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS REPORTER said. 2 | THE ELIMATTA BENNELONG GRAVESITE SAVED he grave site of Aboriginal Affairs and legendary Aboriginal local community. Bennelong has been T The multi-million dollar saved by the purchase of purchase follows a cam- the Putney house where paign by The Weekly he is believed to be bur- Times to create a me- ied by The NSW State morial at the gravesite, Government. which will include a The State Government dedication to commem- will spend around $3 orate the impact of British million to purchase a settlement on the Aborig- Putney home that inal people of Sydney. contains the gravesite A City of Ryde coun- of Aboriginal leader cil meeting in April this Bennelong and will turn year passed a motion to the site into a memorial. protect the grave and “Bennelong is the first Mayor Jerome Laxale significant connection congratulated The Week- between our two cultures ly Times and Mr Roberts. and it is important that “It is great that Council we protect and preserve and The Weekly Times this site as an important have been part of the piece of our nation’s project and we thank Mr history”, Lane Cove MP Roberts for securing the Anthony Roberts said. funding,” he said. “Given its significance University announced cal Federal electorate In April this year – in re- we need to make sure that he had locat- named after him,” he sponse to The Weekly we are taking all the ed Bennelong’s grave said. Times’ campaign – the between the home and appropriate steps to en- It is not known who is City of Ryde passed a parkland, prompting The sure we manage the site buried in a grave beside motion which stated: Weekly Times and former in a way that is respectful Bennelong although “The City of Ryde aims Ryde Mayor Vic Tagg to and in line with community academics speculate to progress further the launch the campaign to values. that it could be local investigation regarding have the site recognised Aboriginal Nanberry, “We need to make sure the potential burial site in by a memorial. we are protecting our Putney and to progress who died in 1821 and heritage and preserving any measures required to The Weekly Times Man- requested to buried the past.” protect the site.” aging Editor John F Booth with Bennelong. AM said front page ap- Bidgee Bidgee, who A committee will be Bennelong died on peals to commemorate led the Kissing Point established to discuss the January 3, 1813 at Kissing Bennelong had paid off. next steps for the site’s Point on the Parramat- clan for twenty years future.