Sovereign Union
of First Nations and Peoples in Australia
Asserting Australia's First Nations Sovereignty into Governance
13 February 2013
OPEN LETTER:
Dear Governor-General,
Re: Sovereign Treaty not the Act of Recognition
Please find attached Act of Sovereign Union that has been endorsed and adopted by several and various nations within Australia.
Correspondence between us, the Queen of England, Prime Minister Ian Cameron of UK and his Parliament, which was responded to by the British Foreign Office confirmed to us that there has never been any form of Treaty, Compact or arrangement that signified that Aboriginal Nations and Peoples around this nation have ever ceded their sovereignty to England during and after British invasion in 1788, nor is there any evidence that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have ever acquiesced to the current Australian system after the establishment of the various State legislatures nor to the Federal government after Federation in 1901.
Reading of past court cases from the 1830s and the 1840s clearly demonstrates that the legal system during its formation in the colonies was at a total loss as to the legal status of Aboriginal people, in particular the jurisdiction of the courts and their ability to prosecute Aboriginal people.
In the Jack Congo Murrell case of 1837 the full Supreme Court concluded that they had legal jurisdiction because as Chief Justice Forbes states if Aborigines were to be afforded the protection of English law then they must be subject to it. In legal terms the Supreme Court erred, because any reasonable person within the legal jurisprudence knows that if there are no legal foundations or precedents and/or in the absence of legislation, then this decision is flawed. In response to the court’s conclusion Jack Congo Murrell’s lawyer, Sidney Thomas, then said that if Murrell was to be prosecuted as a British subject then surely he was entitled to bring a case against the British Crown for compensation for the lands that had now been taken from him by force.
It was at this point in time that the court examined how land can be acquired and the court concluded that land could only be acquired if the occupiers of the land were conquered as a result of a declared war; voluntary cession on the part of the original inhabitants; or the country was barren and therefore unoccupied by people which made it terra nullius. We know the court in the Murrell case decided that the Aboriginal people were in no way in a state of civility that they could be regarded as an organised society governed by their own, capable of believing in the higher order of the Supreme Being e.g. God, thus they were without religion of any form which categorised them into a state that could be likened to a civil sovereign society of people and as a consequence the country was not peopled by a civilised society and therefore terra nullius. It was from this position that Australia maintained the lie of terra nullius, that is, until the High Court Mabo 1992 decision. Since this date all we have seen are newly imposed injustices through legislation at the Federal and State levels that continue the perpetration of a lie, creating laws that prevents them from having to pay just compensation for land and our resources being illegally removed from our Peoples. Therefore maintaining the tyranny of dictatorship over our Peoples and thereby maintaining our Peoples’ state of poverty, having to rely on government and welfarism for our continued survival.
In respect to this proposed Act of Recognition we recommend this matter be referred to the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs to look at its possible legal impacts on Aboriginal Peoples’ continuing sovereignty. Aboriginal people do not want to be involved or engaged in deceitful legal deceptions. We are tired of being dictated to and remind you that Senator Aiden presented a petition to Senate declaring Aboriginal Nations and Peoples have never ceded our sovereignty.
We have looked at the Bill for the Act of Recognition and the words chosen are so deceptive that the legislative draughtsmen have chosen words ‘first inhabitants’. The wording does not give recognition to any legal title First Nations and Peoples have as owners of this land under OUR law and custom. The words chosen in respect of our status as First Nations and Peoples is equivalent to that of a kangaroo or wallaby who also occupy this land under their customs, whereas as we humans have no title proclaimed as the original owners of this land under our law and customs. We are always classified as guardians or custodians, which is a clever legal play on words, that fails to give recognition to our title as the true land owners.
In conclusion it is more appropriate at this time for the Federal Government to be considering a plebiscite amongst Aboriginal Nations and Peoples as to whether they want to become part of an assimilated multicultural society. But it appears that all political parties continue to pursue their own political agenda as defined in the 1930s and 1960s that Aboriginal Peoples must be assimilated into a single Australian society observing the same customs and beliefs as all other Australians. But this is absolutely contradictory when we consider the Jews, Catholics, Anglicans etc. who have their own private schools. Moreover, they have their own churches, mosques synagogues and temples where they pray and observe their own religion. As Aboriginal Peoples we are not afforded the same courtesies and respect.
Sincerely
Michael Anderson
Convenor
Sovereign Union of First Nations and Peoples in Australia
0427 292 492
1 Attachment:
Act of Sovereign Union
between First Nations and Peoples
in Australia
Whereas in the course of human events and history there are times when it becomes absolutely necessary for one Nation or People to dissolve the political and legal bonds which have connected them with another;
Whereas we now call upon the powers of the Creators of the DREAMING to enforce the natural authority that establishes a decent respect of humankind. It is required that we should declare the causes which impel us to the separation from our oppressor and to now declare our unity under our DREAMING and songlines, as we have since time immemorial;
Whereas we hold the Law of the Dreaming, as evidence of authority that all people are born equal, and that they were granted by the Creator certain sovereign inalienable rights; among these are the right to life, liberty, the right to maintain the Law of the DREAMING and the pursuit of spiritual wholeness and personal wellbeing;
Whereas to secure these rights in the modern world, governments are instituted among different Nations and Peoples, deriving their just powers from the consent of the people and the spiritual authority of the Dreaming. Whenever any form of government becomes destructive, it is the right of the Peoples to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, ensuring that at the very foundation of this process are principles based upon the rule of Law of the Peoples and organising its powers to ensure the most pleasing of outcomes for peaceful existence, safety of the Peoples’ happiness and wellbeing;
Whereas prudence will dictate that governments long established should, without prejudice, support the objective of the Peoples who choose to exercise their inalienable sovereign right to be governed by their own peers in accordance with their Laws and under their authority;
Whereas all experience has shown that humankind is more disposed to suffer, while the wrongs are sufferable, than to correct them by abolishing the entrenched subjugation. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations derides the rights of Peoples, which reduces them to absolute despotism, it is the right of the oppressed, it is their sacred duty, to reject and throw off such tyrannical governance and to provide new guards for their future security and to pursue their own goals and objectives. Such has been the patient sufferance of First Nations Peoples of this island continent now known as Australia; and such is now the necessity which requires us to dispel the existing destructive systems that oppress us; and to reinforce our own systems of governance, in accordance with our Law of the DREAMING;
We resolve to adopt and adhere to the following Statement of Principles:
- Our Peoples are equal in dignity and rights to all other Peoples, while recognising the rights of all other Peoples to be different and to be respected as such.
- We recognise that the diversity of Nations and other Peoples contributes to cultures and civilisations, which constitute the heritage of all humankind.
- As First Nations and Peoples we assert the right to freely exercise our basic human rights free from discrimination of any kind.
- It is recognised and accepted that we as First Nations Peoples have been deprived of our basic human rights and fundamental freedoms, which resulted from British colonisation and dispossession.
- The colonial usurpation of our lands, waters, and natural resources has prevented us from exercising our right to development in accordance with our sovereign inherent cultural, socio-economic and spiritual interest in these modern times.
- As First Nations and Peoples it is our sovereign inherent right to have control of our lands, including our natural resources, our environment, our waters, which is derived from our ancient political, economic, religious and social structures in accordance with our culture, Law and philosophies.
- It is our inherent sovereign right to declare and advance our interests in all lands, waters, natural resources, subsurface and airspace as decreed by our DREAMINGS and songlines, through our obligation to Mother Earth and Creation.
- We have an ancient inherent obligation to protect our heritage and to control and regulate its use.
- It is recognised and accepted that we have an ancient sovereign inherent right to protect, control and regulate our ancient practices that ensure their sustainability and thereby establishes equity in development and management of our natural environment and ecosystems.
- We recognise and accept that our Nations and Peoples have a sovereign inherent right to freely determine our future and way of life, with each other and with other sovereign nation states, in a spirit of co-existence and co-operation, thereby ensuring mutual benefit and respect.
- Any and all such agreements, arrangements, ‘treaties’ shall be consistent with all international laws that govern human rights and human interaction.
- We have a right to engage all human rights covenants and conventions in order to promote our hopes and aspirations as Nations and Peoples.
- Nothing in this set of principles may be used to deny any Nations or Peoples their sovereign inherent rights to freely pursue their right of self-determination while asserting sovereignty.
- This statement of principles is a step forward for the recognition, promotion and protection of our sovereign inherent rights and freedoms in respect to our future development and wellbeing.
Signed this ………..…..day of ……………….2013 At:………………………………………………………
Name: Nation: Signature:
………………………………………………………………………………..………………………………………
Letter to all diplomatic missions accredited to the United Nations
Aboriginal Embassy of the Sovereign Union
of First Nations and Peoples in Australia
Asserting Australia's First Nations Sovereignty into Governance
www.sovereignunion.mobi Convenor: Michael Anderson
12 February 2013 SU Note no: 001/2013
The Sovereign Union presents its compliments to all diplomatic missions credited to the United Nations and has the honour to communicate to the missions that we have today delivered to all members of the Federal Parliament of Australia the attached letter.
We seek your support for our aspirations for the recognition of our sovereign status and restitution for the gross violation of Human Rights as per the Australian State’s documented recognition of the genocide against our Nations and Peoples.
With Australia’s recent appointment to the UN Security Council, UN member states are monitoring Australia’s treatment of First Nations and Peoples. Australia has been requested to respond in April 2013 to questions from the Human Rights Committee. Pressure from the international community at this point in history may be decisive in bringing the Crown to Treaty with the original owners of this invaded continent, as has been recommended by the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination on 27 August 2010:
… the Committee recommends that the State party consider the negotiation of a treaty agreement to build a constructive and sustained relationship with Indigenous peoples. [CERD/C/AUS/CO/15-17]
We also wish to remind you of the 1952 General Assembly resolution 637A, which underpins our call for Australia to enter into meaningful negotiation for the purpose of decolonising:
…the rights of peoples and nations of self-determination is a prerequisite to the full enjoyment of all fundamental human rights… take practical steps, pending the realization of the right of self-determination and in preparation thereof, to ensure the direct participation of the indigenous populations in the legislative and executive organs of government of those territories, and to prepare them for complete self-government or independence.
Aboriginal Nations and Peoples have never ceded their sovereignty, nor acquiesced during colonial times or any time after and we seek not to be classified as dependent domestic sovereign nations subservient to the invader society. We seek a meaningful resolution to a very troubled history and we do not wish to be party to the Australian government’s current propositions in respect to the Act of Recognition Bill, which they argue will lead to Constitutional reform and will recognise our Peoples within its constitution.
We do not seek the status of being the ‘first occupiers’ of this continent. We are the ancient land title holders under our Law and custom to this vast land. We, too, have used the natural resources at various times but more importantly our Law and custom acknowledges the natural resources below and above our land, as they relate to our ancient religion and Dreaming stories. It is our desire to be respected and treated as sovereign Nations and Peoples, who have survived a silent genocidal undeclared war against us, which continues into the present.
The Sovereign Union avails itself of this opportunity to renew to all diplomatic missions accredited to the United Nations the assurance of its highest consideration.
Canberra, 12 February 2013
All diplomatic missions accredited to the United Nations
Open letter to Members of both Houses of Parliament
Sovereign Union
of First Nations and Peoples in Australia
Asserting Australia's First Nations Sovereignty into Governance
www.sovereignunion.mobi
12 February 2013
Open letter to Members of both Houses of Parliament
Dear Senator
Re: Australian Government continuing assimilation policy for Aboriginal Nations and Peoples [Indigenous Australians (sic)]
On the eve of the fifth anniversary of the National Apology delivered by former Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, we believe it is timely to analyse its implications. We acknowledge the significance of the Apology and its cathartic impact, however, hidden within the Apology is a very clever manipulation of English words that excuses the actions of the Commonwealth government being complicit and a silent player in authorising and legitimising the actions of Australian state governments. The Commonwealth Government’s 1937 sponsored Aboriginal Welfare conference clearly defines the Commonwealth government’s role in these acts of genocide.
The 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide includes in its definition of:
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
The 1997 Bringing Them Home Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families concluded that:
‘…indigenous families and communities have endured gross violations of their human rights. These violations continue to affect indigenous people's daily lives. They were an act of genocide, aimed at wiping out indigenous families, communities, and cultures, vital to the precious and inalienable heritage of Australia’. [1]
The ‘empty vessel’ factor and the heartlessness of no compensation is an insult and dagger to the heart and soul, thereby increasing the pain of traumatised Peoples. Many people argue that the effort on the part of former PM Kevin Rudd to apologise was worth hearing and that it did serve to act as a catalyst towards improving and easing the trauma of our people, but then to say that our people are not worthy of reparation and compensation for those affected is yet another major slap in the face for the survivors and their families of the Stolen Generations.
What is also not accepted by the Commonwealth government and their state and territory counterparts is the intergenerational trauma that pervades our communities nationwide.
Ironically, the millions of dollars that have been made available to the Link-Up programs may have helped some, but only serves to increase the pain and suffering of many. It is a well-established fact that there continues to be aged children and their offspring, who still feel ashamed and lost because of their fear of rejection from the families that they were removed from all those years ago. The psychological trauma that our people suffer must be dealt with prior to them making contact with their natural birth families. There are many thousands of our people out there in the general community who do fear rejection. These individuals and families suffer in silence, many of whom will never make contact with Link-Up and similar organisations and it is not right that there are centralised organisations which manipulate the recovery program on the scale that they do have in this country.
In the talk about ‘reconciliation’ we must address the need for restitution for the actions of past state and federal government’s administration of Aboriginal Affairs. We have a long way to go in achieving recognition on the scale that is required.
In regards to compensation for stolen generations, it is clear that State courts, such as in the South Australian Bruce Trevorrow case, the legal authorities have recognised removing children from the group is a major crime against humanity requiring compensation. If the legal system has now made this decision then it is time that State and Federal governments now revisit Kevin Rudd’s Apology and establish a reparations and compensation package as part of restitution.
There is also trauma and in many cases rejection on a much wider scale. This is demonstrated by the statement of Foreign Minister, Bob Carr, when he was premier of NSW, where he said words to the effect that it is not in the public interest to open the record books. To this day we still have religious institutions who refuse to open their books and State governments who claim their files have been destroyed.
In many of our Aboriginal communities throughout this country State and Federal governments fear the exposure of public records, because it is a well-known fact in Aboriginal communities that many influential farmers, miners, pillars of society, politicians and senior bureaucrats, who administered Aboriginal Affairs in the past, have all fathered children to Aboriginal mothers, then abandoned them to the assimilation process or the laisser-faire policy imposed on Aboriginal communities. This also includes prominent families in the capital cities, who had young girls placed in their custody as maid servants and cleaners.
In this respect a truth and reconciliation commission will not be wasted, if government were brave enough to initiate an action of this type. This way the contemporary Australian state may be able to join with us for a proper healing process. The government may be able to run but they cannot hide from our communities and our people will always remember.
In conclusion, solutions can be located in van Boven’s UN Principles for Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of Human Rights - restitution; compensation; rehabilitation; satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition. Apology is but one step. [2]
Sincerely
Michael Anderson
Convenor, Sovereign Union of First Nations and Peoples in Australia
ghillar29@gmail.com 0427 292 492
1. http://humanrights.gov.au/pdf/social_justice/bringing_them_home_report.pdf and "Conclusion". Bringing Them Home Community Guide. Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission at Australasian Legal Information Institute (AusLII). 1997. Retrieved 8 October 2010.
2. Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross
Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law, UN General assembly resolution - A/C.3/60/L.24 24 October 2005