By Pastor Geoffrey Stokes
Ninga Mia Fellowship
Kalgoorlie
The Aboriginal law God authorised and ordained for this land but we also see the Western law and then God’s law.
When the Aboriginal law is questioned and changed the elders all must agree and God ordained this law
Romans 13
1 Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.
So the Aboriginal law that has been in this country for 50,000 years the bible says that God established it.
This Western law has only been here 220 years – who authorised that - God or Man?
They came here 220 years ago and they invaded this country – they brought with them a law that was not meant for this land – the Western Law came from England. It is notthe law that God established in this land.
In the Western Law we see that for one mining company or pastoral company to go into another company’s lease they must negotiate. When there is a transfer of land the two parties enter into an agreement – one buys and one sells.
There is not any agreement with Aboriginal people except these laws that this western government has set up without negotiating with Aboriginal people.
220 years is really too late but how long must Aboriginal people wait, living in poverty inthis land while other people are getting rich
The security, health, roads, schools and everything is paid for out of the wealth that comesout of our ground – and that wealth does not belong to the western government –it belongs to the original people.
Look at Ninga Mia community in Kalgoorlie – who is responsible for Ninga Mia – the super pit is right there and millions of dollars are coming out of that ground but our people receive no benefits, only dust.
As an Aboriginal I see that the Western Law has been used to oppress us and contributes to us being despised and rejected. Our own law is ignored and in doing this it is broken over and over – but no-one respects this or even acknowledges it and we are forced to accept this other law, this western law. No-one except Aboriginal people and God seems to care about upholding the true law of this land.
Give careful thought
Leviticus25
The Sabbath Year
“1 The LORD said to Moses at Mount Sinai, 2“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the LORD. 3For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards andgather their crops. 4 But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the LORD. Do not sow your fields or prune yourvineyards. 5 Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapesof your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest. 6Whatever the land yields during the sabbath year will be food for you—foryourself, your male and female servants, and the hired worker and temporaryresident who live among you, 7 as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten.
The Year of Jubilee
8 “‘Count off seven sabbath years—seven times sevenyears—so that the seven sabbath years amount to a period of forty-nine years. 9Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month;on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. 10Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to allits inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return toyour family property and to your own clan. 11 The fiftieth yearshall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself orharvest the untended vines. 12 For it is a jubilee and is to be holyfor you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields.
13 “‘In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to their own property.
14 “‘If you sell land to any of your own people or buy land from them, do not take advantage of each other. 15 You are to buy from your own people on the basis of the number of years since theJubilee. And they are to sell to you on the basis of the number of years leftfor harvesting crops. 16 When the years are many, you are toincrease the price, and when the years are few, you are to decrease the price,because what is really being sold to you is the number of crops. 17Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God. I am the LORD your God.
18 “‘Follow my decrees and be careful to obey mylaws, and you will live safely in the land. 19 Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live there in safety. 20You may ask, “What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant orharvest our crops?” 21 I will send you such a blessing in the sixthyear that the land will yield enough for three years. 22 While youplant during the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and will continueto eat from it until the harvest of the ninth year comes in.
23 “‘The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you reside in my land as foreigners and strangers. 24Throughout the land that you hold as a possession, you must provide for theredemption of the land.
25 “‘If one of your fellow Israelites becomes poor and sells some of their property, their nearest relative is to come and redeem what they have sold. 26 If, however, there is no one to redeem it for them but later on they prosper and acquire sufficient means to redeem itthemselves, 27 they are to determine the value for the years since they sold it and refund the balance to the one to whom they sold it; they can then go back to their own property. 28 But if they do not acquire the means to repay, what was sold will remain in the possession of the buyer until the Year of Jubilee. It will be returned in the Jubilee, and they can then go back to their property. “
This land was taken 220 years ago and there have been 4 Jubilee years since then but the land has not been returned – and more land has been taken.
If people do not follow the laws of God regarding the land there will be natural disasters –fires, floods and earthquakes – like we are seeing now. We believe this as part of Aboriginal Law as well as part of God’s law.
Read the rest of Romans 13 and pray
Pastor Geoffrey Stokes
Ninga Mia Fellowship
PO Box 561
Kalgoorlie
Ph 0407378602
Comments
White men took that message to you like grog and measles
Many indigenous Australians do not accept God. Nor is the idea of God necessary to Aboriginal Law as it has existed for 50,000 or 400,000 years.
According to Christianity God's Law was made known to Moses. Who made known to Indigenous Australia the will of God? It is doubtful that it ever was. Indeed if we reject spurious notions of God and rather adopt living religions or ethics like the type of ethic that has been handed down throughout generations of Indigenous Australia we are better prepared to face the injustices that Aboriginal Australians suffer, and we are much more likely to affirm natural laws of the land and respect for what it represents.
The Old God or the New God? I say no God. No God governs me, and I have met many Indigenous Australians who would rightly believe that Gods both old and new have deserted and failed them.
Indigenous Australia must seek self-determination, but it must seek it within the structures of modern Western society. Use the laws of our modern nation to protect your rights. And accept that with rights come responsibilities.
Certainly the sort of actions that most people see as necessary to advancing Aboriginal welfare and sense of self, a sense of the true identity of the Aboriginal nation, don't have much to do with old gods or new. There is a spirituality amongst Indigenous Australia that does not promote one god over another god. It recognises the land rather than gods. The Land is God, if you want.
Certainly there are Christian Aborigines. But to suggest that Indigenous Australia can only rely upon themselves and God is a mistake. When God fails men and women must make do. That is the way forward, not relying on tired worn out Christian God's that are a product of White Australia, not of Indigenous Australia. White men took that message to you like they took grog and measles.
God is dead. Thus wrote Nietzsche.
Corporations control money and politicians, we control nothing
There is large corporations that control the money and the politicians. These people make the law. Then there is the rest of us. We don't control anything and therefore cannot make laws.