Australian leaders challenged to produce invader sovereignty documents

Goodooga, northwest NSW, 18 June - - An Aboriginal leader has written to the prime minister, the NSW premier and the governor-general challenging invader sovereignty over Australia and urges all Aboriginal nations to do the same.

“Australia’s free party at the expense of our people is over,” Michael Anderson writes in a media release.

The political activist and leader of the 3,000 Euahlayi of northwest NSW is the last survivor of the four young Black Power men who set up the Aboriginal embassy in Canberra in 1972.

He now spearheads a “New Way” movement which has had summits in Canberra and Sydney and is convening another in Melbourne for 1, 2, 3 and 4 July, at which continuing Aboriginal sovereignty will be a main talking point. (See programme below.)

In his letter to the Australian leaders (produced in full below) Mr Anderson demands on behalf of his people “certified copies of any and all documents where our past or present Elders surrendered to the British colonial authorities, or the Australian successor in title, thereby allegedly ceding our sovereignty and relinquishing our proprietary right to our lands, territories, waters and natural resources through their free prior and informed consent”.

The letter reads: “We assert and affirm that at no time since 26th day of January 1788 had the British Admiralty declared war upon our People of the euahlayi thus negating any claim that the People of the euahlayi were conquered. Consequently our lands, territories, waters and natural resources were never acquired by conquest nor cession.”

“By this we assert and affirm that the People of the euahlayi nation have never submitted to the British invaders nor their heirs and successors, nor have we ceded our lands, natural resources, waters and the airspace above our homelands,” the letter continues.

Mr Anderson writes that should the prime minister, the NSW premier and the governor-general fail to produce the documentation of alleged Euahlayi cession of sovereignty, they would take this to confirm that no such documents exist.

“The charade has to stop somewhere,” Mr Anderson says in his release, “and it is now time to lay the cards on the table for all to see.”

“We have a legitimate argument in respect of our continuing sovereignty. The native title process is a covert action to continue to take our lands from us under the false pretence of legitimised Australian court claims.

“This process is a government strategy to have their courts legitimise their claims and the continuing theft of ours lands, waters and natural resources,” Mr Anderson argues.

He recalls that a treaty process of the former National Aboriginal Conference he was involved in as a staff member in the 1980s “was shut down not because of alleged fraud or anything like that, but because the treaty process was beginning to cut to the chase and it was beginning to get a little hot for the Australian government”.

“In July 1981 the then [Liberal Party] Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser, was advised by the federal government’s attorney-general to avoid the word treaty at all cost, because of its international connotations.

“The advice also went on to say that if the American Indian models were used, the National Aboriginal Conference could argue that as a duly elected body they could assert their right of self-determination.”

Mr Anderson says visits by Mr. Ossie Cruse, an elected executive of the National Aboriginal Conference and delegation leader, former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and himself as a staff member, to five African countries in 1983 whose presidents they met, really made the federal government nervous.

“The next Labor government under Bob Hawke closed off all of the treaty negotiations and sought a softer and more conservative approach. Prime Minister Hawke went to the Northern Territory and announced the ‘Barungar Statement’ on Yolngu rights, which had absolutely no effect on Aboriginal Affairs, but at least it served the government’s agenda to distract attention away from the shutting down of the National Aboriginal Conference’s treaty.”

Michael Anderson’s release in full:

Australia’s free party at the expense of our people is over. On behalf of my people, the Euahlayi nation, I have sent the following letter to the Prime Minister of Australia, the Premier of New South Wales and the Governor-General of Australia.

The charade has to stop somewhere and it is now time to lay the cards on the table for all to see. The former National Aboriginal Conference was shut down not because of alleged fraud or anything like that, it was because the treaty process was beginning to cut to the chase and it was beginning to get a little hot for the Australian government.

In July of 1981 the then Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser, was advised by the Federal Government’s Attorney-General to avoid the word treaty at all cost, because of its international connotations. The advice also went on to say that if the American Indian models were used, the National Aboriginal Conference could argue that as a duly elected body they could assert their right of self-determination. This was the government’s greatest fear.

Visits by Mr. Ossie Cruse, an elected executive of the National Aboriginal Conference and delegation leader, former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and myself as a staff member, to five African countries whose presidents we met, really made the federal government nervous.

The next Labor government under Mr. Bob Hawke closed off all of the treaty negotiations and sought a softer and more conservative approach. Prime Minister Hawke went to the Northern Territory and announced the ‘Barungar Statement’ which had absolutely no effect on Aboriginal Affairs, but at least it served the government’s agenda to distract the attention away from the shutting down of the National Aboriginal Conference’s Treaty.

We have a legitimate argument in respect of our continuing sovereignty; our land rights are being covertly taken from us under the false pretence of legitimised Australian court claims to native title. This process is a government strategy to have their court legitimise their claims and continuing theft of ours lands, waters and natural resources.

I call on all Aboriginal people and their nations to write the same letters demanding an answer to these very vexed questions.

The letter to the prime minister, the NSW premier and the governor-general:

The Honorable
The Prime Minister of Australia
Mr Kevin Rudd
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

18th June 2010

Dear Prime Minister,

Re: Evidentiary proof of the origin of your head of power to rule over the euahlayi nation and the authority to usurp our proprietary rights and usufructory entitlements.

The People of the euahlayi nation seek from your government certified copies of any and all documents where our past or present Elders surrendered to the British colonial authorities, or the Australian successor in title, thereby allegedly ceding our sovereignty and relinquishing our proprietary right to our lands, territories, waters and natural resources through their free prior and informed consent.

We assert and affirm that at no time since 26th day of January 1788 had the British Admiralty declared war upon our People of the euahlayi thus negating any claim that the People of the euahlayi were conquered. Consequently our lands, territories, waters and natural resources were never acquired by conquest nor cession.

To the best of our knowledge and belief we assert and affirm that no treaties were entered into by our Elder representatives with the then colonial governors or their successors in state.

By this we assert and affirm that the People of the euahlayi nation have never submitted to the British invaders nor their heirs and successors, nor have we ceded our lands, natural resources, waters and the airspace above our homelands.

Should your office fail to produce the documentation of our alleged cession of sovereignty we will take this to confirm no such documents exist.

The People of the euahlayi thereby assert and affirm that neither the Crown nor the State of New South Wales and Federal Governments have acquired or extinguished the euahlayi People’s sovereignty and our rights and freedoms to our lands, waters and natural resources and airspace above our lands.

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Michael Anderson can be contacted at 02 68296355 landline, 04272 92 492 mobile, 02 68296375 fax, ngurampaa@bigpond.com.au