The Power of One
Famous Aboriginal people, activists & role models. Just a few of the many!
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Eddie Mabo
Champion of Human Rights
While living in Townsville he became a spokesperson for the Torres Strait community and helped to found the city’s Aboriginal and Islander Health Service. He also was co-founder and director of the Townsville Black Community School for ten years – from 1973 to 1983.
He continued to fight for the rights and interests of his people and refused to submit to the domination of others.
In 1981 he was a speaker at a Land Rights’ Conference at James Cook University. An attendee of the conference suggested to Mabo that he should confirm his ownership by inheritance through a land rights court case. In May 1982 Mabo and four other men decided to test their legal claim for ownership of their lands in the High Court of Australia.
Two lawyers were recruited to represent Mabo. It took ten years, but the final decision was that the concept of Terra Nullius (land belonging to no one) did not apply to the land which indigenous people had owned before the first British and white Australian settlers arrived in 1788. The courts ruled that the indigenous people did have ownership of their land and that any questions of ownership of the title should be decided by the Aboriginal or Islander people. This landmark decision is now called “Mabo” in Australian.
Vincent Lingiari
Vincent Lingiari AM (13 June 1908 – 21 January 1988) was an Australian Aboriginal rights activist and member of the Gurindji people. In his early life he started as a stockman at Wave Hill Station, where the Aboriginal workers were given no more than rations, tobacco and clothing as their payment. After the owners of the station refused to improve pay and working conditions at the cattle station and hand back some of Gurindji land, Lingiari was elected and became the leader of the workers in August 1966. He led his people in the Wave Hill walk-off, also known as the Gurindji strike.
On 7 June 1976, Lingiari was named a Member of the Order of Australia for his services to the Aboriginal people. The story of Lingiari is celebrated in the Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody song "From Little Things Big Things Grow".
Dr. Charles Perkins
From the Film Australia Collection 1998. Made by Film Australia. Directed by Robin Hughes. In a life of exceptional achievement, Charles Perkins, soccer star, university graduate, Aboriginal activist and Canberra bureaucrat, has often been in strife. In this interview he gives his own account of the personal experiences that fueled his great anger against white injustice and his determination to fight for Aboriginal rights. Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that the following program may contain images and/or audio of deceased persons.
