Mabo/Churches, Trade Unions and the Academic Community, 1967

Churches, Trade Unions and the Academic Community

'They got a wide spectrum of people from the Townsville community to be involved in this inter-racial seminar. And the people they got were from churches, the trade unions, from the academic community especially and that's where I met Eddie; we were both on the organising committee. He suggested that we ought to have a conference to get people in Townsville to come together, to focus on problems and challenges facing Aboriginal and Islander people, and to meet together to discuss them. And this would probably be the first time this had happened in Townsville, where a large group of Aboriginal and Islander people sat down and discussed as equals with whites. He realised as a result of the conference there were two groups of people who could be useful allies, people in the trade union movement and some people in academia. So he got on very well with people like myself, Henry Reynolds, Margaret Reynolds.'

Keywords: 1967 referendum, Inter-racial Seminar, James Cook University, Loos, Noel, Mabo, Edward Koiki, Reynolds, Henry (Prof.), Townsville, 1967