Summary

With an accomplished career of research and education in the field of black/white history in Australia, Professor Noel Loos began work at the Townsville College of Advanced Education prior to joining James Cook University in 1970, where he taught until retiring in December 1996. He lectured on the history of black-white relations and conducted close research into Aboriginal mission history, frontier conflict, the place of Aborigines in colonial society and government, and the evolution of government policies for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people. During the 1970s he pioneered the development of teacher education programs in Queensland for Aboriginal and Islander people. Professor Loos was also a friend to Eddie Mabo for twenty-five years. During Loos's time at the CAE and JCU, Mabo often sat in on lectures and also delivered occasional guest lectures to Loos's students. In 1981 Loos, along with colleague Prof Henry Reynolds, informed Mabo that he had no legal ownership of his traditional land. A shocked Mabo, from the beginning of his fight for land rights, was supported and advised by Loos.

Professor Loos has written the Australian Dictionary of Biography entry for Eddie Mabo and edited the 1996 book Edward Koiki Mabo: His Life and Struggle for Land Rights. He has published widely on indigenous history and politics, including: Invasion and Resistance; Aboriginal-European Relations on the North Queensland Frontier 1861-1897 (1982); Succeeding Against the Odds: Townsville's Aboriginal and Islander Teacher Education Program (1989); and Indigenous Minorities and Education: Australian and Japanese Perspectives of their Indigenous Peoples, the Ainu, Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (1993). He also contributed to the 2008 SBS series, First Australians, and several books that have issued from the series.