Tributes flow for Wiradjuri activist and lawyer Paul Coe
Paul Coe was one of the country's first Indigenous barristers, brought a case to the High Court that would influence the Mabo decision and was a pillar of Wiradjuri strength and resistance.
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By Madison Howarth
Source: NITV
Paul Coe is being remembered for his "role in the ongoing story of Wiradjuri resistance and resilience". Source: Supplied
Warning: this article contains the name and image of an Aboriginal person who has died, used with permission of his family.
Wiradjuri Elder, activist and lawyer Paul Coe, who passed away on Tuesday aged 76, is being remembered for his dedication to improving the lives of First Nations people.
Born in 1949, he grew up at the Erambie Mission in Cowra in central NSW on Wiradjuri Country before moving to Sydney in the 1960s and joining the Aboriginal Embassy on the lawns of Parliament House in Canberra in 1972.
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Mr Coe was instrumental in establishing the Aboriginal Legal Service and was the first Aboriginal person to study law at the University of New South Wales.
He became one of the first Indigenous barristers and continued his activism through the legal systems and symbolically.
In 1976 he took the fight for sovereignty across international borders and alongside Bundjalung man Cecil Patten was the first to plant the Aboriginal flag on the shores of England, challenging the myth of Terra Nullius.
A plaque was installed at the site on Dover Beach, memorialising their actions.
Gough Whitlam and Paul Coe at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra. Source: Supplied
Continuing the battle for Wiradjuri sovereignty, Mr Coe brought a case against the Commonwealth in the High Court of Australia in 1979.
While Coe v Commonwealth 1979 was unsuccessful, its impact would be felt far beyond his own Wiradjuri people and for decades to come, laying the groundwork for the landmark 1992 Mabo decision.
Mr Coe's children paid tribute him on social media as a "beloved father, grandfather, brother and uncle" who "cherished his children and adored his grandchildren".
They also said they will honour his legacy and his role in the "ongoing story of Wiradjuri resistance and resilience".
“He spent his life devoted to continuing our Wiradjuri ways and fighting for justice, land rights, and self-determination for Aboriginal peoples,” they wrote.
Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy joined tributes, posting on social media that she was “grateful for his support and wise advice to me on many occasions in my final year of school and beyond that, into the workforce.”
The NSW/ACT Aboriginal Legal Service (ALS) said that Mr Coe's ground-breaking work with other Redfern-based activists monitoring and recording police brutality and harassment helped to build a database that could be used to demonstrate the problem and lobby for justice.
"Paul was a life-long campaigner for Aboriginal justice who played a pivotal role in establishing the ALS, and was a well-respected Aboriginal peer who people looked up to," ALS chairperson Keith Morgan said.
“An inspiration and a fearless leader, Paul was a well-respected Aboriginal man that people looked up to as an uncompromising advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights.
"He leaves a legacy at the ALS that is unquantifiable.”
The Metropolitan Aboriginal Land Council said Mr Coe would be remembered for his commitment to Aboriginal rights and services, and that he “should never be forgotten.”
Flags were lowered to half mast on Wednesday at Sydney’s Town Hall and Town Hall in Redfern in honour of his passing.
Award-winning journalist (the Sydney Morning Herald 1987-1992) Tony Hewett also penned a tribute to Mr Coe calling him a “towering presence” who “spoke truth to power”.
Paul Coe was one of the first Indigenous barristers and helped to establish the Aboriginal Legal Service. Source: Supplied
"Paul has never been rightly awarded his place in the pantheon of those who shared and fought in the struggle," Mr Hewett wrote.
"It is time that the weight of recognition so richly deserved be placed on the shoulders of our dead brother, whose story is a worthy comparison to those of his Oglala Lakota brothers at the most recent Wounded Knee and the likes of Malcolm X and Bobby Seal."