Mabo: Life of an Island Man
The biographical movie details a chronological portrayal of Eddie Mabo's life, his upbringing and continual struggle for land rights.
Initially, the audience is introduce to Mabo's neighbours in Townsville, George and Cath Carter briefly mention their longstanding friendship.
Following this, Graham portrays the relaxing and frugal lifestyle of the Torres Strait Islander people, the obvious connection between culture and land immediately reveals itself.
After this incident, Mabo began working on the Torres Strait pearling fleets where he witness an injustice of lower pay towards Indigenous workers in comparison with Malaysian/Europeans.
He then worked a variety of labouring jobs in Cairns, including a Queensland railway track worker, a sugar cane cutter and fettler.
Through the usage of the campus library and presentations in professor Noel Loos’(friend) racial relations class, Mabo began his journey in academic life.
During this time, Mabo also worked at the harbour in which the unions combined with communist party street meetings furthered his interest in racial equality.
This montage of political footage and photographs is when interviewee Margaret Reynolds reveals that the seminars were indeed monitored and Mabo's alleged paranoia of the Queensland Government was rightly appropriate.
However, despite all his political success and aligned with the film's purpose to provide a personal portrayal of Mabo's life, he is also shown to have troubles with alcoholism and domestic abuse within the household.
In the similar vein of cultural preservation the documentary then focuses on year of 1973 in which Mabo opened the first black community school in South Townsville.
In some black and white archival footage of classes at JCU, Mabo states that individuals especially Indigenous people must "retain [their] identity", and his will not be able to pass on traditional customs or language to his children when he dies.
As a result, with the help of his wife Bonita and cousin Donald Whaleboat, Mabo creates a school with the intention of Indigenous cultural preservation and teaching.
This transitions into the second part of the film known as "The Battle of his Life" whereby the audience is introduced to barrister Bryan Keon-Cohen in charge of Mabo's case.
The rest of the proceedings are captured as Mabo accompanies the legal team to the Island of Mer to discuss the customary and continued practices of land ownership.
The ending sequence depicts a gathering of people engaging in the Malo dance as Jack Wailu (friend) sings, this is cross cut with a slowed video of Mabo fishing on his rightful land.
Following this they cut the ribbon and proceeded with the unveiling of the tombstone, to signify not only Mabo's life achievements but the improvement of rights for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders into the future.
