Henry Reynolds

Eddie Mabo carried with him a certainty that his lands on Mer were never lost to him. This confidence was shaken during a discussion with his friend Henry Reynolds, the historian based at James Cook University. Reynolds exposed the brutal legal reality: the lands on Murray Island which Eddie Mabo saw as belonging to the Mabo family were actually Crown lands belonging to Queensland. The traditional laws and customs under which Meriam people such as Eddie Mabo acquired rights to land were simply not recognised by the Australian legal system. According to Reynolds, Mabo's reaction was one of 'horror and incredulity'. From that day on, the fight to gain legal recognition of his rights' to land on Mer became Eddie Mabo's consuming passion.

Keywords: crown land, land ownership, Mabo, Edward Koiki, property law, Reynolds, Henry (Prof.)

Still: Henry Reynolds. Courtesy of Walking Together, Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, November, 1998.
Author: Kenna, Jonathan