Conference Program
Pre-Conference Workshops | Public Program Day 1 | Public Program Day 2
The Mabo Lecture
Thursday 3 June 2010, 9:00-11:00am
Professor Marcia Langton, AM, will be presenting the 2010 Mabo Lecture.
Marcia Langton, AM, is currently Chair of Australian Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne. Her doctoral fieldwork was conducted in eastern Cape York Peninsula during the 1990s, and her experience of the statutory land claim and native title system in this region was informed by a decade of administration and fieldwork pertaining to Aboriginal land rights in the Northern Territory of Australia.
She was awarded a PhD from Macquarie University in 2005. She is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences of Australia and a member of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS). She is a member of the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership and Chair of the Museums and Galleries of the Northern Territory Board.
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The Mabo Lecture
The inaugural Mabo Lecture was delivered by Noel Pearson at the 2001 Native Title Conference which was held in Townsville. Since the 2003 Native Title Conference, the Mabo Lecture has become an annual event. Past presenters of the Mabo Lecture are Noel Pearson (2001 & 2003), John Borrows (2004), Aden Ridgeway (2005), Galarrwuy Yunupingu (2006), Professor Michael Dodson (2007), Chief Judge Joe Williams from the Waitangi Tribunal in New Zealand (2008) and Les Malezer (2009).
Koiki (Eddie) Mabo (1937-92) was born on the island of Mer (also known as Murray Island) in the Torres Strait. As a young man Eddie moved to mainland Queensland working in and around Townsville. Eddie Mabo helped found Townsville’s Aboriginal and Islander Health Service and the Townsville Black Community School. At a land rights conference in Townsville in 1981, Eddie and other Murray Islanders decided to begin legal proceedings to have the traditional ownership of their land recognised by the Courts. Their claim was lodged with the High Court on 20 May 1982. On June 3rd 1992, six months after Eddie Mabo’s death, the High Court handed down its decision in favour of Mabo and his fellow plaintiffs. This was the first recognition of native title in Australia.