Gail Mabo to speak at Reconciliation Week celebration

Gail Mabo, the daughter of legendary Indigenous activist Eddie Mabo, will speak at a special screening of rare Indigenous footage at the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) in Canberra on Thursday 31 May.

The booked out event, to celebrate Reconciliation Week, will be held in the NFSA’s Arc Cinema. The screening will include the acclaimed documentary Mabo: Life of an Island Man, and From Malo’s Law to Native Title: 1898-1998, a new compilation put together by the NFSA’s Indigenous curators to mark the 20th anniversary of the momentous High Court Native Title decision.

As part of the program, Indigenous dance troupe Zenadh Kes Mari will perform traditional Torres Strait Islander dances.

In 1992 Australian Commonwealth law recognised that Aboriginal rights and interests in land had survived the Crown’s acquisition of sovereignty in 1788. With assistance of footage from the AC Haddon collection, Eddie Mabo and fellow plaintiffs were able to campaign within ‘white-man’s law’ for the landmark decision that became the Native Title Act.

The NFSA has more than 22,000 Indigenous titles in its collection.

To celebrate Mabo Day, the NFSA’s Black Screen is making available for loan a Mabo Day DVD, which includes the documentary Mabo: Life of an Island Man and compilation From Malo’s Law to Native Title: 1898-1998. To order go to nfsa.gov.au/blackscreen or call 02 8202 0112.

Interviews can be arranged with Gail Mabo and with NFSA Manager Indigenous Collections Branch Jade Christian.

David Hogan: 02 6248 2002 or david.hogan@nfsa.gov.au
Samantha McDonough: 02 6248 2173 or samantha.mcdonough@nfsa.gov.au