Mabo/...Students who had done race relations...

...Students who had done race relations...

'I mean his [Eddie's] realisation that he didn't own his own land, and that to get that recognition it would need to go to law, that there was the possibility of having a court case, all this was fairly speculative stuff until a land rights seminar in Townsville. Now this was organised by the students, the Students' Union. But they were students who had done race relations, which we were doing at that time. They would certainly have known Eddie, it was quite a small university. And I think they consciously saw that their seminar would advance the cause. Now the critical thing is that they invited to come to Townsville people who otherwise wouldn't have been there. That is people with the legal expertise that could talk to Eddie and turn a mere dream into reality. And from that time on it is the legal experts who were so important. But it was the bringing together of Eddie and his friends with the people who had the know-how and that was another critical turning point in the whole process.'

Keywords: conference, James Cook University, land rights, Land Rights Conference, 1981, Reynolds, Henry (Prof.), The Townsville Conference, Townsville