Mabo Day Celebration 2025: Honouring the Legacy of Eddie Mabo

Date: Tuesday, June 3, 2025
Time: 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM (followed by lunch and networking)
Location: B2010 Business School Auditorium (downstairs from the cafeteria), Belinda Hutchinson Building (H70), The University of Sydney, Corner Abercrombie St and Codrington St, Darlington NSW 2006

Join us for a special Mabo Day 2025 event as we come together to honour the legacy of Eddie Mabo and the landmark Mabo decision, which recognised the land rights of Australia's First Nations peoples. This event is an opportunity to reflect, learn, and celebrate the ongoing journey of reconciliation and justice.

We invite students, staff, local community members, elders, uncles, aunties, brothers, sisters, and friends to participate in this meaningful occasion. The event will feature a keynote address from Alick (Zugub) Tipoti and a dynamic dance performance by Alick and his family, titled Dhamuw Koedal, creating a space for both reflection and celebration.

Program Highlights:

Welcome & Coffee/Tea on Arrival (please arrive at 10:15 AM for a 10:30 AM start)
Opening Remarks: Professor Jennifer Barrett | Interim Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Indigenous Strategy & Services
Keynote Address: Alick (Zugub) Tipoti | Artist, Cultural Leader, Cultural Advisor, Song Composer, and Dance Choreographer
Dance Performance: Dhamuw-Koedal Cultural Group | Alick (Zugub) Tipoti and Family Members
Closing Remarks: Associate Professor Gabrielle Russell | Academic Director at the National Centre for Cultural Competence
Lunch served at 12:00 PM followed by networking opportunities.

We welcome all members of the university and local communities, as well as Indigenous organisations and individuals, to come together in this commemorative and celebratory event.

About the Keynote Speaker

We are honoured to welcome Alick Tipoti as the keynote speaker for this special event. Alick is a distinguished Torres Strait Islander artist, cultural leader, and knowledge holder whose work is celebrated both nationally and internationally.

Through his father’s lineage from Badu and Mabuyag, Alick is Koedal (crocodile), Zugubaw Baydham (the seven stars shark constellation), and Kuki Guuba (the northwest monsoon wind). Through his mother’s side from Saibai, he is Koedal, Thabu (snake), and Dhoeybaw (wild yam). These ancestral totems deeply inform his identity and his creative expression.

Fluent in the endangered Kala Lagaw Ya language, Alick is one of its few remaining fluent speakers. His language skills and cultural knowledge are central to his artistic and performance practice, which preserves and shares the stories, traditions, and cosmology of the Torres Strait. His work spans across printmaking, sculpture, dance, and choreography — each piece a powerful testament to his ancestral knowledge and connection to land, sea, and stars.

Alick’s visual art has been exhibited globally and is held in Australia’s most prestigious collections, including the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, and the Art Gallery of South Australia. As a choreographer and performer, he breathes life into cultural stories, using movement to educate and inspire.

His most iconic work was presented in 2016 on the rooftop of the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco. His latest environmental-themed designs will soon feature on two Queensland rescue helicopters, raising awareness of climate change and marine conservation. Alick’s deep commitment to cultural preservation also led to a powerful ritual performance behind closed doors at Cambridge University in 2015, honouring Torres Strait turtle shell masks taken in the 19th century.

From 2012–2016, Alick led the internationally touring Zugubal Dancers. In 2021, he and his family founded a new dance group, Dhamuw Koedal, which has already performed across the Pacific and at major festivals including the Winds of Zenadth Cultural Festival and the Melanesian Arts & Cultural Festival.

Alick also featured in a 2020 documentary with HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco, exploring their shared passion for environmental protection. The film is currently streaming on SBS On Demand.

Alick sees himself as a cultural fire-keeper — continuing the legacy of his ancestors by passing on sacred knowledge to the next generation. He teaches young people to know their totems, stars, and winds as the foundation of cultural identity. He believes that language can live again through dance and song, even in the face of a fast-changing, digital world.

Alick Tipoti stands as a powerful voice for Indigenous knowledge, language preservation, and artistic excellence — a leader whose vision bridges ancient wisdom and contemporary expression.

Event Accessibility:

Closed Captioning (CC)

Wheelchair Accessible

Accessible Entrance, Lift, and Bathroom

Seat size 45cm wide x 43cm deep with armrests

All gender accessible bathroom

Please advise if you have any dietary requirements or additional accessibility needs, or queries for this event by emailing The Diversity and Inclusion Team at diversity.inclusion@sydney.edu.au.