The Aboriginal assertion of sovereignty is to be put to the Federal Parliament by the Greens Senator Rachel Siewert at the request of a New Way Aboriginal Summit in Canberra from 30 January to 1 February. Senator Siewert made the pledge to about 120 Aboriginal delegates from across the continent.
Michael Anderson & Senator Rachel Siewert
Sovereignty was a key issue at the gathering, convened in the Australian National University by Michael Anderson, last survivor of the four founders of the Aboriginal Embassy in 1972. The summit elected a task force to examine options like international and domestic sovereignty.
Diet Simon attended because he’s been friends with Michael for 10 years and helps him with his media relations. Diet began the 16 February What’s Going On? with a brief selection of voices to set the tone of his report. Opinions you hear or read are Diet’s or those of the other people speaking, not necessarily that of Noosa Community Radio.
Githabul men explaining their country, Michael Anderson in the background
Representatives of the Githabul nation of northern NSW and southern Queensland won a lot of attention with their assertion of sovereignty which they claim has attracted international support and some offshore funding. Based on their research of centuries-old British documents, the Githabul affirm their sovereignty by completely rejecting British or Australian law. Githabul man, Mark McMurtrie, said neither Queen Elizabeth nor her colonial Australian government have a writ over this country.
Venezuelan Ambassador, Nelson Dávila Lameda (left), wiith Lara, his Aboriginal interpreter
The 120 to 150 elders and young people attending heard the ambassador of Venezuela explain how that country’s indigenous people have won secure rights, including guaranteed representation in parliament, under the revolutionary government of Hugo Chavez. Enthusiastically applauded throughout his presentation, Ambassador Nelson Dávila Lameda pledged Venezuela’s help to Australian Aboriginal people in any international forums where they might pursue sovereignty. He spoke through an Aboriginal female interpreter:
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Long-time sovereignty campaigner, Paul Coe
Paul Coe, a former barrister, has campaigned for decades for sovereignty and said a lot of explanation needed to happen in communities about just what it meant.
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One of the things delegates were most angry about were Aboriginal people in high positions in government and elsewhere holding back grassroots Aboriginal progress. They were decried as Abocrats.
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Marianne Mackay
The gathering heard a lot of raw pain and fury on a wide range of issues, from continuing deaths in custody to the Northern Territory intervention. Marianne Mackay, a Nyoongar woman from Perth, spoke about the Aboriginal Elder who was baked to death in a private detention van.
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Les Malezer (Photo by Paul Harris)
Les Malezer has campaigned for Aboriginal rights in international forums for many years. Ray Jackson, president of the Sydney based Indigenous Social Justice Association, responded to his presentation.
Michael Anderson and a taskforce in the making
A task force of about a dozen people was elected to address concerns like deaths in custody, over-policing of children and youth, institutional racism, review of child protection laws in consultation with the Aboriginal nations, sustainable Aboriginal economic development, respect for Aboriginal religion and spirituality, cultural tourism and ownership of all Aboriginal policy making. One of the first things to be planned will be to send a delegation to England “to claim the rent”, as convenor Michael Anderson called it.
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Barbara Shaw, from the town camps in Alice Springs was a prominent attendee.
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Barbara Shaw (left) from Alice Springs, Raelene from Hermannsburg outstation
A woman of the Larrakia nation, the traditional owners of all land and waters of the greater Darwin area, explained that they’ve lost trust in Aboriginal land councils because they pursue white agendas, including making deals with mining companies that communities don’t want.
A woman commented from the floor:
Larrakia Nation Aboriginal Corporation will proudly host the 9th World Indigenous Women and Wellness Conference from the 22nd to 25th of August.
Tjanara Goreng Goreng, an Aboriginal woman who was a senior public servant in the federal government, blew the whistle on the intervention to the press. She told how she was victimised as a result.
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A young man argued that there can’t be Aboriginal sovereignty without an economic base.
There was obviously some tension in the gathering between young bloods wanting action and older people holding them back, accusing the young of not knowing where they’d head.
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Michael Anderson, a Black Power activists in the 70s, suggested civil disobedience.
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Several speakers spoke of police bullying and criminalising of Aboriginal children and youth. Michael Anderson recounted what goes on in northwest New South Wales.
Other summit outcomes briefly:
- A demand for Aboriginal Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin to be replaced by an Aboriginal person selected by Aboriginal Peoples.
- Unanimous rejection of the Rudd government-sponsored ‘National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples’.
- A call for the hundreds of Aboriginal nations to make treaties with each other as a precursor to full sovereignty.
The next summit is being planned for Sydney over Easter.
Diet says, “Now, why am I not surprised that I haven’t seen or heard anything about this summit on mainstream media? Maybe I just missed it….. I doubt that. I believe this is the iron curtain locking the Aboriginal experience away from perception by the majority of Australians. The collective guilt complex? The see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil syndrome? My comment, not that of Noosa Community Radio.”
There’s more about the summit on the Internet. Surf to http://indymedia.org.au/ and scroll down to the story “Aboriginal sovereignty to go to the Senate”.
You can reach What’s Going On? by emailing markrzz@bigpond.com or phoning 5447 2233.
The conference closed with a powerful Aboriginal rap.
All photographs by Thomas Wicking, except as indicated
As an Aboriginal lawyer i am deeply ashamed of the stupidity of my own family here even entertaining such garbage i wish they would read the Mabo decision
@ Trevor Close. I too am of the same thoughts as you, having studied law also, it is embarrassing to read such comments on websites as it paints as uneducated. Perhaps the likes of those would like to feed their hunger for control by obtaining formal qualifications, then allow their judgement to be the basis of a public view that is educated and fair. You mob are silly.
Mabo is legal trickery denying Aborigines proper conbtrol of land and what’s on and under it. See http://www.4shared.com/audio/0l7THbst/Robbie_Thorpe_Pay_the_rent.html