Michael Mansell
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Michael Mansell LLB |
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|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born |
June 5, 1951 northern Tasmania |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Residence | Hobart, Tasmania |
| Alma mater | University of Tasmania |
| Occupation | lawyer, activist |
Michael Alexander Mansell (born June 5, 1951 in northern Tasmania) is a Tasmanian Aboriginal leader, who as an activist and lawyer, has worked for social, political and legal changes to improve the lives and social standing of Tasmanian Aborigines (Palawa).
Mansell is of Palawa descent from the Trawlwoolway group on his mother's side and from the Pinterrairer group on his father's side, both of which are indigenous groups from north-eastern Tasmania.
From an early age, Mansell was a radical protester about the status and treatment of Tasmanian Aboriginals within the community. However he discovered that mere protest was an ineffective measure to achieve his aims of land rights and improved conditions and the radical tactics that he and other Indigenous rights protesters employed in the 1970s were abandoned.
Mansell undertook a degree in law at the University of Tasmania, graduating in 1983. He began a career as a lawyer, attempting to defend the rights of Aboriginals, whilst pursuing an agenda of reform. Since then, he has become a qualified barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Tasmania, and the High Court of Australia.
In 1972, he and others set up the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre of which he was chairman and legal manager and he is the secretary of the Aboriginal Provisional Government.
Mansell was named 'Aboriginal of the Year', at the 1987 National NAIDOC (National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee) Awards,and played a crucial role in the drafting of legislation for the Native Title Act 1993 that arose out of the Mabo v Queensland case.
Some of the subjects that Mansell has written about include the Australian Constitution, Aboriginal customary law, cultural and intellectual property, the Human Genome Project, land rights and Aboriginal sovereignty. Mansell has written a book Treaty and Statehood: Aboriginal self-determination, published by The Federation Press in November, 2016
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