User talk:Alexanderkosiek/sandbox

Hi Matthew,

The edit that I wish to made to the article on Australia's oldest towns is to include in the table of towns, the town of Mer (or Murray Is or in the local Meriam Mer language Murijingalong). The town (population 344 in the last 2011 census in Australia) is one of the island homelands of the Torres Strait people - one of the two indigenous peoples of Australia. The Torres Strait body of water lies between the northern tip of mainland Australia and Papua New Guinea.

Its place in history was cemented when one of its sons, Eddie Mabo, took on the Queensland Government in the High Court of Australia and won for the first time in Australia land rights for indigenous people, both Torres Strait Islanders and Australian Aborigines, finally bringing such rights as had been earlier granted/negotiated in the US, Canada and New Zealand between the Europeans and the Indigenous peoples.

The Murray Islands (Mer is one of 3 closely grouped islands in the Murray Group, and the only permanently settled island of the three) has been subjected to archaeological studies, at least one of which has been academically published (Davies, Richard. Woven Histories Dancing Lives. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press, 2004.). In the archaeological paper in this book, the archaeological finds from the Murray Islands were dated as being as old as approximately 2500 years old - consistent with the claimed occupation of Mer in the current Wikipedia article (~2800 years).

This is also supported by the continued existence and usage of the Meriam Mer language (of Papuan derivation) in the Eastern Torres Strait Islands including Mer.

The High Court Cases (Mabo 1 in 1988 & Mabo 2 in 1992) were based on detailed evidence from the Murray Islander plaintiffs on individual land tenure and inheritance, local law (Malo's Law) and other relevant issues (Refer to the 'Mabo' Judgments of the High Court of Australia). These issues demonstrated to the seven High Court Judges the pre-European existance of individual land holdings in a self governing community which is one of the characteristics of a town.

Your care in accepting my edit is respected as it will be controversial because so few people know about Mer, and it may also bring out racist based biases against Sydney loosing its "oldest" title. However the truth is the truth.

Regards Alex Kosiek