Language and Legacy: Mabo Day 2025 Creative Workshop

Join us on Mabo Day for a powerful Meriam Mer-focused creative workshop facilitated by artist and activist Boneta-Marie Mabo, granddaughter of the late Eddie Koiki Mabo.

This year commemorative event will take the form of a creative community workshop by Boneta-Marie Mabo, drawing on her creative practices and honouring the legacy of her grandfather, Eddie Koiki Mabo beyond Native Title, acknowledging Miriam Mer as the First Language of late activist and his creative practices in song, dance and visual arts. The workshop will integrate iconic Mabo imagery and Meriam Mer language, with opportunities for participants to incorporate their own languages and artworks into the creative process.

Workshop highlights include:

• Visual storytelling using archival images of Eddie Koiki Mabo paired with descriptive text in Meriam Mer, reflecting on his legacy as a cultural leader, dancer, educator, and artist.
• Language-based artmaking, drawing on Boneta-Marie Mabo’s creative practice, with opportunities for participants to incorporate words, phrases, and stories from their own ancestral languages.
• Creative reflection and truth-telling through the revival of language—reclaiming and revoicing cultural knowledge through artistic expression.

Held on 3 June, Mabo Day commemorates the 1992 High Court decision that recognised Native Title and overturned the doctrine of terra nullius.

This workshop is part of State Library’s ongoing commitment to supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language revitalisation. It will be a culturally safe space led by and free to First Nations peoples.

About Boneta-Marie Mabo

Boneta-Marie Mabo, Piadram/Munbarra, a proud Aboriginal and Torres Strait woman, a sugar slave descendant, a prison abolitionist, artist and a lover of fashion and art. In 2017 she collaborated with the Royal Australian Mint in the design of a circulating commemorative 50c coin to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1967 referendum and the 25th anniversary of the High Court Mabo decision. In 2016 she was the inaugural artist-in-residence for the State Library of Queensland’s kuril dhagun Indigenous centre, in 2015 she won People’s Choice award in the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Telstra Art Award for her art celebrating the life of her activist grandfather, the late Eddie Koiki Mabo. For the past five years the award winning contemporary artist has lead the Sisters Inside Young Indigenous Art Program. Sisters Inside, an independent community organisation, which exists to advocate for the human rights of women and girls in the criminal justice system. She holds an Undergraduate Degree in Visual Arts from Deakin University.