Tribal leaders meet in Alice Springs to hammer out treaty with White Australia

No consent to Constitutional recognition ("R").

Members of tribal nations, including respected leaders of First Peoples, are gathering in Alice Springs - Mparntwe in the local Indigenous language - to define and agree on a treaty with White Australia. “They will craft a treaty from the people – a salt of the earth, grass-roots document that respects the First Peoples, that is of, and by, the First Peoples of this continent,” the organisers of the gathering write“We are anticipating a good number from across the country to show a united front on this important issue of sovereignty in our country, which has been railroaded by the Recognition campaign, a diversion from the real issues, and will not deliver for all traditional owners,” writes Narungga Elder Tauto Sansbury.

The Freedom Movement hosting the conference was born out of the Freedom Summit at the Old Telegraph outside of Mparntwe last November.

 

A DVD, “How Would You Like To Be Me?”, has been produced, providing a compelling insight into the current state of issues facing First Peoples of Australia.

 

Prominent Elders and activists taking part include Alison Anderson, Rosalie Kunoth-Monks, Michael Ghillar Anderson, Jeff McMullen and Gerry Georgatos.

 

“Don't miss your chance to hear from Australia's most respected speakers discussing the real issues and challenges of Aboriginal Australia," the media release says.

 

In the runup, Rosalie Kunoth Monks, Tauto Sansbury and Jim Remedio, manager of Aboriginal radio 3KND in Melboure, outline the issues to be addressed in an interview offered to 400 community and Aboriginal radios across Australia.

 

Tauto Sansbury  argued in an interview with Aboriginal CAAMA Radio in Alice Springs: "As the Abbott government continues the push towards constitutional recognition for Aboriginal and Torres strait Islanders … growing numbers of grass-roots community members are now questioning just what this actually means ..and if it could be a backward step!”

 

The veteran rights campaigner says the three-day gathering will give his people the opportunity to share their thoughts on a range of issues which could have significant impact into the future.

 

On the same programme respected Arrernte Elder Rosalie Kunoth Monks urged her people to continue the push for a Treaty, saying without it there is no other way out of firmly entrenched poverty.

 

She said wealth creation within first nation communities needs to become reality, and she encouraged both communities and individuals to remove themselves from ongoing government control.

 

WGAR backgrounders: NAIDOC 2015 Awards: Rosalie Kunoth-Monks, Person of the Year & Tauto Sansbury, Lifetime Achievement   ---    National Freedom Movement   ---   Treaty   ---   Constitutional recognition   ---   Treaties with Aboriginal Sovereign Nations   ---   Constitutional Recognition 2   ---   Aboriginal Sovereignty Movement

 

WGAR News archive

 

 

 

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Sovereign Union of First Nations and Peoples in Australia

Asserting Australia's First Nations Sovereignty into Governance

www.sovereignunion.mobi

 

_______________________________

 

 

MEDIA RELEASE 12 September 2015

 

Ghillar, Michael Anderson, Convenor of the Sovereign Union, co-founder of the Aboriginal Embassy and Head of State of the Euahlayi Peoples Republic sends his Speech for the Freedom Summit on Saturday 12 November 2015 at the Old Bungalow, Mparntwe (Alice Springs, NT) :

 

Many minds can locate the true pathway: one outcome

The need for decolonisation and asserting independence

 

I present this paper to you because I am unable to attend today but it is absolutely important that we take on board what an Aboriginal leader, Patrice Lumumba, of the Democratic Republic of Congo said when she addressed the Pan African Congress (PAC) in 1960 and said we have to rediscover our most intimate selves and rid ourselves of mental attitudes and complexes and habits that colonisation has trapped us in for the last centuries. Lumumba thought it was possible to work together with the former Belgium oppressors who for their part they saw as an enemy and facilitated her assimilation.

 

If we truly want to establish a process of asserting our sovereignty then we must cast aside personalities and differences. This is not about gaining personal notoriety or fame because not one person has all the answers, but many minds can locate the true pathway. For of all we need to recognise flaws in our own personal makeup. Do we truly understand what colonised minds look like? The most famous psychoanalyist and philospher Franz Fanon argued that we must first look at ourselves as oppressed people because oppressed people must understand that they are themselves their own examples of oppression and unfortunately when we go through the education and enculturation processes of the colonial States, we miss so much of our own ancient teachings and in doing so lose our self-awareness of who we truly are. This in turn creates confusion for ourselves personally because on the one hand, we want to be Murri, Anangu, Koori, Yolngu, Narungga, Arrerente, Euahlayi or Murrawarri for example. On the other hand the success of their education and enculturation has us working towards what Fanon describes as the oppressed wanting, at any cost, to resemble the oppressor. He also says that colonised people perpetuate their own conditions of dysfunctionality while striving to emulate the culture and ideas of their oppressors. He concluded by saying that imperialism leaves behind germs of rot that must be clinically detected and removed from our land but not only our land, our minds as well.

 

We may not recognise how much we have been enculturated.

 

While there is a long standing desire to unite, our enemy is often ourselves. For us it is about whose idea it was and personalities can become our Number One enemy. There are many pathways to our own liberation but there is only one outcome which many offerings such as a right to our own identity; a continuation of languages; right to our own citizenship and nationality; right to be a member of our own Sovereign Nation with clearly defined boundaries and a right to ceremony, spirituality; and the right to develop our own natural resources in order to develop an economic base that will give us the benefits of being able to improve our own social conditions so that we can have a better and healthier wellbeing and prosperous new way under our Law, culture and custom.

 

The international word used to describe these objectives to achieve these outcomes is the right of self-determination, but as colonised Peoples we must understand that it is We who must take a good hard look at ourselves because when we talk about citizenship, what are we talking about? Are we talking about being sovereign citizens of our own Nations or are we talking about being citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia?

 

Michael Mansell and the Aboriginal Provisional Government (APG) have put up two proposals:

1.     the Seventh State to consist of all Aboriginal owned lands throughout Australia, which it in turn would mean that we give up our own independent identity in order to become a single State;

2.     Is to have identified seats in Parliament dedicated specifically for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. This was discussed 29 years ago and at the time we were told in the National Aboriginal Conference (NAC) that we were thirty years ahead of our time.

 

The 7th State proposals create a number of questions that we have to deal with. If we are to entertain these notions then we need to understand which citizenship we adopt and have a right to because the colonised minds of the majority are confused. On the one hand it would assist in redeeming our tribes and Nations and at the same time empowering First Nations Peoples of Australia, but this approach has some very real threats. One is it will require us in many ways to develop a Westminster parliamentary system under the control of our oppressor, and it opposes the real struggles for self-determination. Not only that but people do not understand that using this language and approach would very well trap us into an illusion of self-determination and could cause us to miss opportunities to realise the real thing.

 

Here in Australia we have Aboriginal collaborators who are working with the Australian Government believing they can achieve the best of both worlds. We must be careful. To collaborate in its root meaning is to work together, but there is also a different meaning – it is called traitorious co-operation with the enemy, which means that when we engage in their proposals the threat depends on whether our minds are decolonised. Working together requires all participants to work on themselves, their thinking, assumptions, perspectives, beliefs and habits of mind. There is more to decolonisation than meets the eye. There is a right of self-determination and all that can be achieved from that when organised properly, but decolonisation is also personal and political.

 

This is our challenge if we are to establish ourselves as leaders to take this movement forward. Otherwise we need to stay within our own Nation boundaries and borders to work with our own People if we are not prepared to work as a single political unit. Names and acronyms mean nothing. It is the right outcome that we need. Defining these outcomes is our first priority, then we can work together on methodologies to achieve our goals. Without doing this we are flogging a dead horse. Political rhetoric is cheap, making things happen is hard and requires commitment and loyalty to a common cause. Overall we must attain a trust in each other if we are to work as a team, for without trust and loyalty we are like leaves on a dying tree. We need that tree to grow, each branch must grow strong and not allow the leaves to die. We will only leave behind one legacy if we fail to do this - a beautiful structure silhouetted against the setting sun for it is dead.

 

The Sovereign Union is about bringing each Nation together and the only priority is that those who become members of the Sovereign Union are People who have defined their territory, established an interim government and created their flag and indicia that demonstrate who they are and have created a Constitution of their own under their Law and culture and, where applicable, incorporation of a modern parliamentary system on our terms. We are in the process now of formalising Treaties which formalise the inter-relationship between the Nations and the Sovereign Union. The Sovereign Union also has existing NGO status within the United Nations and has been a vehicle for reporting and giving evidence on the dreaded effects of British/Australian colonial genocidal practices against our Peoples. We have been doing this for 16 years, but it is an idea that was founded by Ghillar Michael Anderson and Clarrie Isaacs now deceased Yamatji Noongah man. We must go forward, we cannot allow any negativity to control where we are going.

 

 

 

The next Gathering of Nations is in Canberra:

 

beginning 9am Saturday 21 November 2015 at Old Parliament House

 

& 9am Sunday 22 November 2015 – venue to be confirmed.

 

 

Agenda – Sovereignty & Treaty/ies; Decolonisation and UDIs – Unilateral Declarations of Independence; Constitutional Recognition; Constitutions & Right to choose a national identity & Citizenship

 

Contact:

 

Ghillar

Michael Anderson

Convenor of Sovereign Union of First Nations and Peoples in Australia

and Head of State of the Euahlayi Peoples Republic

 

Mogila Station, Goodooga NSW 2838

 

ghillar29@gmail.com, 0427 292 492

 

www.sovereignunion.mobi

 

 

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Walking for country“Guitar strumming, bird song, people of all ages calling out to one another and happy spirits flowing freely reprive us of six days walking from Yakabindie station. We’ve had new friends come and go, hunted and butchered our own (much anticipated) tucker. Stories from the world and stories from our hearts have been shared around the campfire every night feeling more and more like family rather then strangers. And flies flies flies.

 

A description of the atmosphere among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people walking across Western Australian country to protest against uranium mining.

 

They’ve had a statement of support from Taiwanese nuclear opponents: An excerpt: “Since Australia is the main supplier of the uranium used in Taiwan, when Taiwan is using electricity created by nuclear, what’s being sacrificed is the well-being of Australia. Looking at the uranium mining industry in Australia, and then looking back at what’s been happening in Taiwan’s nuclear power and waste management, we realize the similar challenge we’re facing, we realize this industry is consist of lies, cover-ups and denials, at the price of the sacrifices of the people from the grassroots.”

 

The one-month Walkatjurra Walkabout from Yeelirree to Leonora is led by the Walkatjurra Rangers in partnership with Footprints for Peace, Western Australian Nuclear Free Alliance (WANFA), the Anti Nuclear Alliance of Western Australia (ANAWA) and the Conservation Council of Western Australia (CCWA).

 

‘Walkatjurra Walkabout - Walking for Country’ is a celebration of Wangkatja country, a testament to the strength of the community who have fought to stop uranium mining at Yeelirrie for over forty years.

 

“All are welcome to join for an hour, a day, a few weeks or the whole way." Full schedule and details at walkingforcountry.com.

 

 

Piers Verstegen,  director of the Conservation Council of Western Australia, shared these impressions on the Walk's facebook page:

 

For the second time in my life I have had the remarkable privilege of spending a couple of days with Traditional Owners of the Yeelirrie and Lake Way area nearWiluna, visiting the country that holds uranium oxidesin the earth, proposed for mining.


For the last four years the annual Walkatjura Walkabout has brought people from all over the world to connect with this amazing country and walk in solidarity with the Traditional Owners who are fighting to protect it.

 

This year we had friends from Japan where the Fukushima nuclear disaster and its impacts are still very fresh in people's minds. We had visitors from Taiwan which has a major domestic nuclear waste problem and has been dumping this waste on a nearby indigenous-occupied island. We had social justice activists and environmental campaigners from across Australia, USA and Europe.

 

We met up with Marilyn from the nearby Uno Downs station who visited the camp and told us of the ongoing battles she had with gold and lead mining polluting groundwater and impacting cattle and wildlife on her pastoral lease.

 

We learned about the dreamtime stories of that country and how the Aboriginal culture and connections to land are containing strong to this day.

 

We learned about how efforts by these same Aboriginal communities to protect their lands from mining in the 1960's and 70's led to the Aboriginal Heritage Act being passed in State Parliament. And we learned how in the last two years, hundreds of Aboriginal cultural sites had been de-listed - stripped of protection under the Act - as the State Government adopted a new and far more restrictive definition of Aboriginal Heritage.

 

We breathed the freezing desert air, tinged with smoke from the mulga burning on the cooking and camp fires as we talked late into the night.

 

We stood in awe of the brilliant diversity and abundance of wildflowers bursting from the desert - pinks, yellows, purples against the backdrop of red earth, grey-green foliage and clear blue skies.

 

We saw the markings in the earth that identify our fellow creatures we shared the camp with - emu, kangaroo, goanna, snake, desert rat, dingo.

 

We woke to the calls of birds at dawn singing above our swags to usher in a perfect and crisp new day - exchanging constantly evolving melodies that could never be dreamed of by even the most brilliant jazz improviser.

 

We tasted the many varieties of desert bush food - berries, seeds, nuts and edible plants - some more subtle and others more assertive than our sugar-trained palates are used to.

 

We walked, we talked, we laughed, we hugged, we connected with each other and country and we reminded ourselves why we work to protect land and culture. And we reaffirmed why we won't give up the responsibility of keeping WA's uranium safely in the ground and out of the global waste and weapons cycle that is the inevitable outcome of the nuclear industry.

 

Thanks to Marcus Atkinson for organising the walk and to Kado Muir, Marcus and Geoffrey for welcoming us to country. Thanks to Mia Pepper, Dave, Scott Ludlam , Jo Valentine, KA, Robin Chapple Bilbo Taylor and all the others for your ongoing dedication to the uranium-free campaign. Thanks to Elizabeth PO' and Adrian Glamorgan from RTRundertorey and Craig from NITV for covering the story. And thanks to all those who donate or support this campaign in so many other ways.

As new plans to dredge the Great Barrier Reef for thousands of coal ships have emerged, the Aboriginal people who live along and are the traditional owners are appealing for signatures from around the world to help them resist the government push for what would be Australia’s biggest coal mine.

On 12 September the petition by the Wangan and Jagalingou people had reached 98,822 of 100,000 targeted signatures.

In a moving YouTube posting, underlaid with didgeridoo and clapstick music, their spokesman Adrian Burragubba explains the issues.

A dozen major banks in Europe, the US and Australia have refused to lend for the project, which arch-conservative prime minister, Tony Abbott is pushing hard to realise, probably with government money. Abbott, who is on a campaign to kill renewable energy sources, said famously last year that “coal is good for humanity”.  

The traditional owners’ petition text:  

Adani - don't destroy our land and our culture.
We are the TRADITIONAL OWNERS of the land in Queensland’s Galilee Basin.
Coal company Adani wants to use our ancestral lands for their Carmichael coal mine.
We do hereby firmly REJECT a Land Use Agreement with Adani for the Carmichael mine on our traditional lands.
We DO NOT consent to the Carmichael mine on our ancestral lands.
We DO NOT accept Adani’s "offers" to sign away our land and our rights and interests in it.
We will not take their "shut up" money.
We will PROTECT and DEFEND our Country and our connection to it.
We call on Adani to IMMEDIATELY WITHDRAW from this damaging project on our land."

Background

http://www.989fm.com.au/category/podcasts/lets-talk/

This is the website of a Brisbane based Aboriginal radio station which has daily interviews on subjects highly topical to Aboriginal people in a series called 'Let's Talk'. It also pumps out terriffic Country music.