Thomas Mayo (Indigenous Australian)
 | This article is an autobiography or has been extensively edited by the subject or by someone connected to the subject. (October 2024) |
Thomas Mayo | |
|---|---|
| Born | Thomas Mayor 1977 (age 46–47) Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia |
| Occupation(s) | Human rights advocate, trade union official, author |
| Employer | Maritime Union of Australia |
| Known for | Indigenous Voice to Parliament campaigner |
| Political party | Labor |
| Website | thomasmayo |
Thomas Mayo (né Mayor, born c. 1977) is an Australian human rights advocate and author who is an Indigenous Australian (Kaurareg Aboriginal and Kalkalgal and Erubamle Torres Strait Islander) ancestry. He is a signatory of the Uluru Statement from the Heart and advocate for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, an author and a trade union organiser.
Early life
[edit]Thomas Mayor was born[1] in 1977 in Darwin, Northern Territory. He was raised by his father, Celestino Mayor, an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander man who also has Filipino and Dayak ancestry, and his mother, Liz Mayor, was of Polish and English ancestry.His maternal grandfather was a Jewish refugee from Poland.[2] Mayo completed Year 12 at school.[3]
Mayo grew up in Darwin.[citation needed]
Career
[edit]Mayo started working as a "wharfie" aged 17 in Darwin.[4] On the docks he was a labourer and machine operator.
Aged 21, Mayo became a union delegate in the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) after the Patricks dispute at the wharves in 1998. The dispute was when the company and the government attempted to de-unionise the industry by locking out the Patrick's workforce.[3] He started taking on leadership roles, as a delegate in 1999, a Union organiser in 2010, then becoming the MUA's Northern Territory Branch Secretary in 2013.[citation needed] In 2017, the MUA supported Mayo as he began a 6 year campaign to enshrine a First Nations Voice in the constitution, as was called for in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. He was elected as Assistant National Secretary of the MUA in 2023.[5]
As of August 2024[update], Mayo is Assistant National Secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia since his election to the position in 2023.[5]
He is also an adviser to the Diversity Council Australia[a]
Advocacy
[edit]In May 2017, Mayo was one of the elected members of the Uluru National Constitutional Convention, the culmination of 13 regional dialogues, which produced the Uluru Statement from the Heart.[7] Mayo was a signatory to the Uluru Statement from the Heart, which was printed onto a large canvas and afterwards decorated by Anangu law women. He then travelled the country for 18 months with the rolled-up canvas in a tube, showing it to people and explaining what the Voice was about. He continued to advocate for a referendum to achieve a Voice to Parliament until the 2023 Australian Indigenous Voice referendum.[3] His journey is documented in his book Finding the Heart of the Nation.[8][9]
In 2022, Mayo delivered the Vincent Lingiari Memorial Lecture. He drew parallels between the struggle by land rights campaigner Vincent Lingiari's struggle to be heard by governments, to what Indigenous peoples of Australia are experiencing.[10]
In July 2023, a cartoon ad promoting the No campaign in the lead-up to the referendum on the Voice was published by Advance Australia in the Australian Financial Review, featuring caricatures of Mayo, along with, MP and Yes advocate Kate Chaney, and her father businessman Michael Chaney. This led to bipartisan condemnation of the ad as "racist".[11] The AFR later apologised for the ad.[12][13]
Other activities
[edit]Mayo is a public speaker, and has delivered the Vincent Lingiari Memorial Lecture, the Aunty Evelyn Scott Memorial Lecture and in September 2024 he delivered the Renate Kamener Oration at the University of Melbourne, entitled "The campaign for justice and recognition continues - What's next?".[14]
Publications
[edit]Mayo is the author of seven books as of September 2024[update][3] as well as having had articles and essays published in The New York Times, The Guardian, Griffith Review and The Sydney Morning Herald.[15]
In 2019, his essay "A dream that cannot be denied: On the road to Freedom Day", later published in the Griffith Review,[16] was highly commended by the Horne Prize judges. It examines the legacy of the Wave Hill Walk-Off (Gurindji Strike), and the need for a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution.[17]
With Kerry O'Brien and cartoons by Cathy Wilcox,[18] his book, The Voice to Parliament Handbook, was awarded Australian Book Industry Awards Book of the Year, Non-Fiction Book of the Year, and Social Impact Book of the Year in 2024.[citation needed]
His book Always Was, Always Will Be - The Campaign for Justice and Recognition Continues was published on 4 September 2024 by Hardie Grant Books and explorers hope, lessons from the past, and what supporters of Indigenous rights and closing the gap can do since the referendum for a Indigenous constitutional recognition failed.[citation needed]
Personal life
[edit]Mayo changed his surname from Mayor to Mayo in November 2022, reflecting the original spelling of his family name as seen on the tombstones of his ancestors.[19]
Notes
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "The Voice to Parliament". Readings Books. 25 May 2023. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
- ^ Desiatnik, Shane (27 July 2023). "Mayo urges solidarity for Voice". The Australian Jewish News. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
- ^ a b c d Mayo, Thomas (15 April 2023). "'From the beginning I felt the power of this thing': One man's long journey for recognition". The Sydney Morning Herald (Interview). Interviewed by FitzSimons, Peter. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
I was 20 during the Patrick wharves dispute, the lockouts that occurred in 1998.
- ^ "Thomas Mayo". Australian National Maritime Museum. 3 May 2023. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
- ^ a b "Who's Who?". Maritime Union of Australia. 25 January 2021. Retrieved 10 August 2024.
- ^ "Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander External Advisory Panel". Diversity Council Australia. Retrieved 10 August 2024.
- ^ "In conversation with Thomas Mayo". Banyule City Council. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
- ^ "Finding the Heart of the Nation by Thomas Mayo". Hardie Grant. 1 October 2019. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
- ^ Pitt, Helen (29 May 2019). "Uluru Statement's incredible 18-month journey across the nation". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
- ^ Collard, Sarah (25 August 2022). "Don't let 'low bar politics' hold back Indigenous voice, advocate to say in Lingiari lecture". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
- ^ Worthington, Brett (6 July 2023). "No campaign advertisement dubbed 'personal and racist attack' on Voice Yes campaigner Thomas Mayo". ABC News. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
- ^ Butler, Josh (6 July 2023). "AFR apologises for running voice no campaign ad featuring 'racist trope'". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
- ^ Wedesweiler, Madeleine (6 July 2023). "Australian newspaper apologises over 'racist' ad from No campaign". SBS News. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
- ^ "Home". Renate Kamener Oration. 1 January 1970. Archived from the original on 10 August 2024. Retrieved 10 August 2024.
- ^ "Thomas Mayo". The Wheeler Centre. 3 July 2023. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
- ^ "A dream that cannot be denied – Thomas Mayo". Griffith Review. 3 November 2020. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
- ^ "The Horne Prize". The Horne Prize. 2021. Archived from the original on 14 December 2022.
- ^ The Voice to Parliament Handbook: All the Detail You Need. Hardie Grant Explore. 2023. ISBN 978-1-76144-036-6.
- ^ Mayo, Thomas (7 November 2022). "Thomas Mayo on LinkedIn: You may start to notice my last name has changed slightly. When my Dad's…". LinkedIn. Archived from the original on 6 September 2023. Retrieved 6 September 2023.