WARNING: This story contains the name of a deceased person.
Indigenous barrister Paul Coe, who helped found the Aboriginal Tent Embassy and became one of the country’s most influential activists as well as being a legal trailblazer, has died at the age of 76.
The Wiradjuri elder, who was one of NSW’s first Indigenous barristers, passed away on Tuesday in Sydney.
Coe was was a key figure in campaigning on the 1967 Referendum, which was amended to count Indigenous Australians as part of the population, and was also fundamental in establishing the Aboriginal Legal Service in 1971.
“It is with a heavy heart that the ALS acknowledges the passing of Wiradjuri man and towering figure in the fight for Aboriginal justice, Paul Coe,” said Aboriginal Legal Service chairperson Keith Morgan.
“Paul was a life-long campaigner for Aboriginal justice who played a pivotal role in establishing the ALS.
“An inspiration and 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.”
Coe was born in 1949 at Erambie Mission in Cowra to parents Agnes and Les Coe, both of who became prominent land rights activists.
I often refer to him as one of my heroes… being taught by him is something I will never forget.
He attended Cowra high school as the first Aboriginal student on a scholarship and was also one of the first not only to attain the HSC but also to be elected a prefect. He later moved to Sydney where he became one of the first Aboriginal Australians to study law at the University of New South Wales. Later, after a successful career in law, he turned to teaching.
Neil Randell, an outreach officer at Jumbunna Institute UTS, was one of Paul’s students in 2015.
“I often refer to him as one of my heroes who was influential to me,” he said. “For me, being taught by him is something I will never forget.
“He had this great knack of telling a story, and as a teacher you need to.
“He was a household name, and I’d see him on the news, this black man from Erambie near Cowra who moved to Sydney to work and study all for the purpose of his service to Aboriginal Australia.”
Coe became involved in the 1967 Referendum campaign and throughout the 1970s in the development of Australia’s Black Power movement in Redfern, along with other Aboriginal activist movements — including the George Street March against the Vestey Company.
In 1972, he was a key figure in establishing the Aboriginal Tent Embassy outside Parliament House in Canberra – which became the longest running protest in Australia’s history. He also travelled with Cecil Patten in 1976 to England to plant the Aboriginal flag on Dover Beach, challenging depictions of Australia as ‘terra nullius’, or empty land, prior to British colonisation, and symbolically claiming England for his people.
A titan and a leading voice… his passing leaves a void that we all feel profoundly.
In 1979, Paul along with other leaders representing the NSW Organisation for Aboriginal Unity camped outside Parliament House protesting with an Aboriginal Bill of Rights.
That same year he launched Coe v Commonwealth in the High Court claiming Aboriginal sovereignty over Australia, and arguing Britain had wrongly asserted authority over Australia; and that Australia had been acquired by conquest, not settlement.
While ultimately unsuccessful, Coe’s case had a significant influence on the Mabo decision in 1992, which recognised the existence of native title, overturning the concept of terra nullius.
Coe became a barrister in the early 1980s. In 1983, he was a pioneer for the Aboriginal land rights movement, serving on the first interim NSW Aboriginal Land Council (NSWALC) and was later elected treasurer after NSWALC was formally constituted under the NSW Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983.
After being deregistered as a barrister in 1997, for making a false affidavit about his financial worth to the Family Court, Coe turned to education, teaching Aboriginal Studies at Eora TAFE near Redfern.
In 2017 he was recognised as one of the inaugural winners of the NSWALC Chairperson’s Award where he spoke of his late sister, fellow activist Isabel Coe.
100 great Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders you really ought to know
Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy said in a post on Facebook: “He co-founded the Aboriginal Legal Service in Redfern, the first of its kind, to make sure First Nations people had access to justice.
“I am grateful for his support and wise advice to me on many occasions in my final year of school and beyond that, into the workforce.
“My heart goes out to his children and families at this deeply difficult time. Much love to you all.”
Coe’s niece Sydney City councillor Yvonne Weldon, the first Aboriginal candidate for Sydney lord mayor and deputy chairwoman of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council, posted on social media she would be “remembering him as a ‘titan’ and a ‘leading voice’”, adding: “His passing leaves a void that we all feel profoundly.”
Coe’s legacy lives on through his children including artist, Jasmine Coe and Edie Coe, chairperson of the Aboriginal Medical Service Redfern.
In a statement on social media his children said they would “honour his legacy and his role in the ongoing story of Wiradjuri resistance and resilience”.
Randell, who was still in contact with Coe earlier this year, said: “The last time I saw him was in February at the commemoration of the Freedom Ride of 1965 at the Convention Centre in Darling Harbour.
“I am glad I told him then [he was my hero].”
Additional reporting by Mahir Munot.
Main image supplied.
