Educational Media Reviews Online

The fascinating biography, Mabo: Life of an Island Man,, documents the life, struggles, and achievements of Eddie Koiki Mabo, a political activist who spent the last years of his life fighting for indigenous land rights on behalf of his fellow Murray Islanders in the South Pacific. Through interviews with family, neighbors, friends, and colleagues, as well as through black and white historic footage and video from the last 10 years, viewers are introduced to the life of this fascinating man.

The video traces Mabo's political awakening, from the time he is exiled from his island at the age of 16 by the Queensland government, through his struggles to find work in Queensland, the treatment of he and his wife as one of the first aboriginal families to live in "town", his involvement with the Communist Party and his fight for indigenous education and land rights. Much of the video focuses on the period after 1982, the year he first filed claim in court against the Queensland and Australian governments, challenging the colonial notion of "terra nullius" (the idea that indigenous Pacific Islanders had no concept of land ownership before the arrival of the colonial government and thus had no legal claim to the lands they inhabited). Through much struggle, debate, and deliberation, the court finally ruled in favor of recognizing indigenous land rights in 1992, several months after Mabo's death.

Mabo is exceptionally well done, with beautiful footage, strong narrative, and a gripping story to tell. More than mere biography, this video transcends a single life, exposing viewers to the history of a geographic region and its people, and to issues common to many colonized lands- oppressive colonial rule, prejudice, political struggles for indigenous rights, and struggles to maintain aspects of traditional culture in the face of colonial rule and assimilation. Mabo: Life of an Island Man is appropriate for high school, college and university audiences. It is particularly well-suited to courses in anthropology, area studies, indigenous rights, politics, and law. Too long to be shown during a single class period, Mabo is well worth devoting two days to viewing.

For more on the life of Mabo, see the video Land Bilong Islanders, also by Trevor Graham (1990; distributed by ABC in Sydney), or consult one of the books written by biographer Noel Loos.

Highly Recommended.