Building on Eddie Mabo’s legacy

More than 30 years after James Cook Univer­sity gardener Eddie Koiki Mabo led the High Court case that resulted in Australia’s native title laws, it is time that billions of dollars in accumulated resource royalties be unlocked from charitable trusts and used to benefit Indigenous people’s economic development. The Australian is optimistic about the potential of the newly created Mabo Centre to achieve what decades of federal, state and territory spending have failed to do – close the gap for our most disadvantaged citizens.

The Mabo Centre, launched in Perth on Tuesday by Mabo’s daughter, artist Gail Mabo, will aim to overcome legal and policy obstacles that prevent native title holders from creating wealth from their land and sea rights. Its research and work will be geared to benefiting traditional owners across the nation. Ms Mabo is a founding member of the centre’s advisory board.

The centre’s goal, Paige Taylor reports, is to create a vehicle, subject to close scrutiny, with charitable standing but that is committed to undertaking economic development activity, offering a path towards much needed progress. Iron ore giant Rio Tinto is supporting the initiative as a founding partner.

The centre’s co-chairs, University of Melbourne associate provost Marcia Langton and National Native Title Council chief executive Jamie Lowe, wrote in Tuesday’s paper that while Australia’s minerals and technology sectors had expanded and diversified, “what we haven’t done is change the way Indigenous Australians are included in the nation’s economic future”. The nation had reached a crossroads, they wrote, “where the needs of Aboriginal traditional owners and the economy meet”.

While economic development, especially for remote, disadvantaged Indigenous communities, remains an elusive goal, the new centre has the potential to be a circuit-breaker. Managed well, the reforms should lead to local jobs and new economic opportunities, giving communities, families and individuals greater responsibility for managing their future. These, in turn, should help close persistent gaps in life expectancy, wellbeing and economic status.