form y separately published work icon Mabo : Life of an Island Man single work   film/TV   biography  
Issue Details: First known date: 1997... 1997 Mabo : Life of an Island Man
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Units Teaching this Work

Text Unit Name Institution Year
form y separately published work icon Mabo : Life of an Island Man Jonathon Holmes , ( dir. Trevor Graham ) Lindfield : Film Australia , 1997 Z946556 1997 single work film/TV biography (taught in 1 units)

A documentary that explores the life of Eddie Mabo, whose struggle for land rights, and his remarkable life in general, had a profound effect on Indigenous rights in Australia. It tells the story of an island man so passionate about family and home that he fought an entire nation and its legal system. Though he died before his great victory was won, it has forever ensured his place on Murray Island and in Australian history. Mabo effectively challenged the notion of terra nullus, which asserted that Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders did not have a system of legal ownership predating white settlement. He devoted his life to a fight to gain legal recognition of his right to own ancestral land and his family home in the Murray Islands. Mabo died of cancer just five months before the High Court's historic decision.

Australian Cinema and Television University of New South Wales 2010 (Semester 1)
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