Goodooga, northwest NSW, 15 May 2010 -- Aboriginal political activist Michael Anderson (pictured) said today that the second New Way Summit held over the weekend of the 8-9th May at the Sydney University was very successful.
While it was very difficult for many people to attend, the internet is very effective at getting to a large audience, Mr Anderson said.
The issue of the continuing sovereignty of Australia’s Aboriginal nations was the centre piece of the weekend’s discussions and the summit decided that Aboriginal people must assert their continuing sovereignty by identifying their territory and clan country as it was before the British invasion.
“People must reject the nominated names that the invaders gave to us and return to our original names,” Mr Anderson said.
“It is not an easy task to throw away the names and tags that have been imposed upon our peoples throughout Australia, but it is a challenge that we as Aboriginal nations face,” says Mr Anderson.
“The invader has imprisoned us within his society just with name tags that they own. By registering our children under their birth registration the oppressor gets to own our children and us,” the New Way summit was told.
“Mabo Judgment number 2 exposed Australia’s weakness to hold claim over the Aboriginal nations. This is borne out by the Chief Justice alluding to the fact that the High Court of Australia was not the appropriate judicial location for this question to be answered as it belonged to another jurisdiction.
“This means the only appropriate court is the world court and there is already a precedent in the Western Sahara case. In this judgment the International Court of Justice said that sovereignty always remains with the people,” said Michael Mr Anderson.
“The existing Australian society and parliament assert a right of claim. Trying to get them to talk to us about a New Way forward and settlement on our claim to this country on equal terms for negotiations is like asking the thief ‘did you take it’. He will always find a way to say NO, I did not,” Michael Anderson argues.
“What is the claim of ‘right’? It appears that this claim of right comes from the ‘Bible’ where Abraham was told by God that his children would go out and take the lands of others.
“This is the basis upon which the Papal Bulletins were issued to England, France, Spain and others who set sail to locate other lands and settle them for their kings and queens and thereby assert a right of claim upon settlement,” said Mr Anderson.
“In our case we have never ceded nor relinquished our sovereignty to the invaders, the British, nor have we treaties with the existing government,” Mr Anderson said.
“These issues are the ghosts that haunt this country and we must lay to rest this question.
“It is a very daunting task and I understand that people will say ‘what about the assault we are experiencing from these existing governments.
“To that I reply: How many times can a dog stand being kicked? It is time to stand up and say ‘no more’.
“Our people must have a long hard look at our current position and situation. You cannot stand on the sideline and be spectators.
“We must get into the game, and not be cowards and wait for the players of defiance to play the game and when they take some yards from the opposition you step in and take this position from which you yourselves will benefit while tacitly siding in part with the enemy in fear of a loss,” Mr Anderson said.
“There is a plan of action that the delegations will act on and these actions will be rolled out over the rest of this year.
“We are one and we must work together; if we fail, all will be lost,” Mr Anderson said.
The next New Way summit will be at the Melbourne University during the June Queen’s Birthday weekend, when the lead topic will be the British genocide of Aboriginal people and the ongoing war against Aboriginal people through assimilation and absorption. Another key topic to be discussed is the 'Treaty’.
Michael Anderson can be contacted at 02 68296355 landline, 04272 92 492 mobile, 02 68296375 fax, ngurampaa@bigpond.com.au
Comments
Re: Second New Way Aboriginal summit: “Reject the names ...
I would just like to say that all this aboriginals versus the invaders has gone on for far too long, centuries in fact, neither will ever be happy with what they get unless one or the other is completely evicted from the country. So instead we should 'all' be working together, not just 'all' the aboriginals, we should look out how both aboriginals and invaders can interact with each other in relative harmony as both come from different cultures so our differences need to be work out and then there needs to be no more complaining from either party, enough is enough, both sides need to get over themselves.
Re: Second New Way Aboriginal summit: “Reject the names ...
Here we are 2010, in the past week we have just celebrated Reconciliation Week with the theme 'Let's see it though'. How will we, as a country, ever reconcile past government practices and social stigmas and misconceptions, when we have both sides of the debate saying the other has it wrong? How are we going see it though? The hatred and stigma has gone on for long enough. It now needs to stop. Yes I do beleive that we Indigenous peoples of Australia have had the rough end of the stick, and that's putting it mildy, and we need to re-claim that which we have lost, we also need to be heard and ensure that there is recognition and acceptance of this in the current political and social arenas.
To achieve this we need to work together as one with all Australians whatever their heritage is, to ensure that the past does not repeat itself. Australia now in the modern age is a multi-cultural nation, however the recognition of the First Nations people of the county has not been put in the social context. Working together as one will ensure that ALL peoples of this county can be recognized, respected, accepted.