Lismore, NSW, 18 July 2012 -- The recent demonstrations against expansion of the BHP Roxby Downs uranium mine in South Australia, led by Arabunna Elder, Kevin Buzzacott, highlight how governments and mining companies ignore and completely override the sovereign rights and human rights of First Nations Peoples, writes sovereignty activist, Michael Anderson.
The last survivor of the four founders of the Aboriginal Embassy in Canberra writes: “The ongoing catastrophe of the Fukushima meltdown in Japan is fresh in our minds and the previous disaster of Chernobyl in the Ukraine still haunts us, but governments are ignoring the warnings and, instead, appear beholden to mining industry, in particular the uranium industry.”
Mr Anderson is the National Coordinator of the interim National Unity Government of the 'Sovereign Union', launched at the 40th anniversary of the embassy in January.
He charges that the South Australian government ignores its founding document, the Letters Patent from Britain, as though it never existed.
He notes that in the 1830s, to satisfy the Colonial Office in Britain, the South Australian Colonizing Commission agreed to protect the rights of the indigenous owners of Country and cites from the document:
“Should the Protector of the Aborigines find that the Lands, or any portion of them ... are occupied or enjoyed by the Natives, then the lands which may be thus occupied or enjoyed shall not be declared open to public sale, unless the Natives shall surrender their right of occupation or enjoyment, by a voluntary Sale made to the Colonial Commissioner ... Should the Natives occupying or enjoying lands ... not surrender their right to such land by a voluntary sale, then, in that case, it will be the duty of the Protector of the Aborigines to secure to the Natives the full and undisturbed occupation or enjoyment of their lands and to afford them legal redress against depredators and trespassers.”
[Letters Patent Erecting and Establishing the Province of South Australia,19 February 1836]
Mr Anderson suggests that politicians and lawyers fail to argue this case because they assume they are duty-bound to maintain the colonial status quo in this country.
Mr Anderson’s statement in full:
The recent demonstrations at the ‘Gates of Hell’ led by Kevin Buzzacott, Arabunna Elder, against the BHP Roxby Downs uranium mine expansion highlight how governments and mining companies ignore and completely override the sovereign rights and human rights of First Nations Peoples.
The uranium mine is in Kokotha country, but its impact crosses into Arabunna country to extract water for the mining. The Olympic mine expansion crosses the Mashers Faultline* itself, where there is a calculated risk of mining induced earthquakes of severe magnitude.
The ongoing catastrophe of the Fukushima meltdown in Japan is fresh in our minds and the previous disaster of Chernobyl in the Ukraine still haunts us, but governments are ignoring the warnings and, instead, appear beholden to mining industry, in particular the uranium industry.
The South Australian government ignores its founding document, the Letters Patent from Britain, as though it never existed.
In the 1830s, to satisfy the Colonial Office in Britain, the South Australian Colonizing Commission agreed to protect the rights of the owners of Country:
“Should the Protector of the Aborigines find that the Lands, or any portion of them ... are occupied or enjoyed by the Natives, then the lands which may be thus occupied or enjoyed shall not be declared open to public sale, unless the Natives shall surrender their right of occupation or enjoyment, by a voluntary Sale made to the Colonial Commissioner ... Should the Natives occupying or enjoying lands ... not surrender their right to such land by a voluntary sale, then, in that case, it will be the duty of the Protector of the Aborigines to secure to the Natives the full and undisturbed occupation or enjoyment of their lands and to afford them legal redress against depredators and trespassers.”
[Letters Patent Erecting and Establishing the Province of South Australia,19 February 1836]
There appears to be a continuing process in this country of politicians and lawyers refusing to acknowledge the laws that are already in place.
Lawyers with integrity and conscience could argue this case, but we understand that they fail to do so because they assume they are duty-bound to maintain the colonial status quo in this country.
Kevin Buzzacott and his supporters continue to fly the flag of opposition and resistance, demonstrating that since 1788 First Nations Peoples have never stopped fighting and in no way can anyone – government, lawyer or judge – ever say or argue that we have never fought, resisted nor questioned the colonisers and their authorities over our rights to our country.
Kevin Buzzacott declared his People’s sovereignty 100 kms north of the Roxby Downs uranium mine at the protest base camp, near where he was born in Arabunna country, and this must now be noted by all concerned. In this regard the Sovereign Union and interim government can now work with Kevin Buzzacott to incorporate his nation into the Act of Sovereign Union and we intend to take this Act of Sovereign Union internationally and to the UN in our capacity of a sovereign power.
*Further info on the Mashers Fault http://cooberpedyregionaltimes.wordpress.com/2010/05/31/seismic-expert-m...
Contact: Michael Anderson 0427 292 492 ghillar29@gmail.com
More Aboriginal activism is reported at National Unity Government (http://nationalunitygovernment.org/), Treaty Republic (http://treatyrepublic.net/) and Tracker (http://tracker.org.au/).
Comments
Written to be broken
Letters Patents, like international treaties and/or conventions are written to be broken when, how, where and if it may suit Her Britannic Majesty's enlighted representatives.
George Venturini
Aborigines at “bottom rung” says international rights group
A new international report has ranked the life circumstances of Aboriginal Australians at the “bottom rung” and warned that Aboriginal children are “23 times more likely” to face jail than non-Aboriginal children.
See http://tracker.org.au/2012/06/aboriginal-australians-at-bottom-rung-says...
Far-reaching international Fukushima consequences
Totally off topic about what you posted, I have this aside about the meltdown being fresh in our minds.... most people are unaware that there is now no food supply in Japan that is not radioactive. The Japanese government has been burning radioactive rubble from Fukushima all over Japan.
Seals in Alaska are dying of radioactive toxicity with huge implications for the food supply of the Inuit and Eskimo peoples.
California almonds and prunes have been found to have Cesium 134 as well as 'hot particles' being found in the air in Seattle.
There are islands of Fukushima rubble floating towards the west coasts of Canada and the US.
Human beings seem to be a suicidal species or are half of us psychopaths? Do we really need more uranium or are some so greedy that they are willing to risk the lives of all for the enrichment of themselves?
Trudy
No, this is not an irrelevant "totally off-topic"
RE: "Far-reaching international Fukushima consequences
Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 19/07/2012 - 11:36am"
No, this is not an irrelevant "totally off-topic" to the issue of the Letters Patent and issues about the expansion of Uranium mining on and in Aboriginal lands.
How many bushfires have occurred in South Australia or other parts of Australia westward, and including south or north, of the British A-tests sites at least since 1956 if not earlier in areas, and on Aboriginal lands, that have had highly contaminated radioactive fallout dumped on them from these British A-tests, where fire could have create a devastating radioactive smoke cloud ?
Wind can carry radioactive smoke particles large distances, not just in the local or regional areas, but right across not only South Australia but the entire Australian continent.
Have any Aboriginal traditional fire burners or members of their communities suffered from exposure to high doses of radiation in burning off such radioactive bush or eating the bushtucker, particularly berries, that have grown on its country or in it since 1956 if not earlier ?
Have any Aboriginal traditional fire burners or members of their communities ever known whether they possibly are or may have been lighting a radioactive fire, let alone know that if they do experience or have experienced a tingling, metallic sensation in their skin - they possibly are lighting or may have lit a radioactive fire?
Have any South Australian or other Australian governments ever warned Aboriginal people on country that has been irradiated from nuclear fallout, and who practice traditional burning off, that burning off may cause radionuclide particles to begin migrating up into the air and away wherever the wind blows them ?
Have any South Australian or other Australian governments ever warned Aboriginal people on country that has been irradiated from nuclear fallout, about scrub fires and burning off country being a cause of spreading the legacy of the British A-tests fallout, which many people think we can already safely forget, but from whose smoke plumes huge quantities of radionuclides have been dispersed over large parts of both South Australia and Australia westwards,including south and north, of the A-tests sites as a direct consequence of that pernicious legacy of the A-test explosions ?
How many of South Australia's let alone Australia's bushfire firefighters, who are mostly volunteers, know whether they are or ever have been fighting a radioactive fire, let alone know that if they do experience or have experienced a tingling, metallic sensation in their skin - they possibly are fighting or may have fought a radioactive fire?
Or how many Aboriginal traditional fire burners or members of their communities or South Australian and other Australian bushfire firefighters fully understand the serious dangers of being exposed to superheated radioactive particles ?
On the basis of the reports about the current live and present danger from forest fires in the Ukraine created by the fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster, let alone the dangers from burning off the rubble from Fukushima, there has been a long term danger across Australian since 1956 if not earlier from radioactive caesium and strontium fallout getting into the foodchain from berries that apparently "are highly efficient at soaking up and storing radionuclides".
How much bushtucker food is "highly efficient at soaking up and storing radionuclides" and therefore have stored radioactive caesium and strontium ?
Have any South Australian or other Australian governments warned Aboriginal people on country that has been irradiated from nuclear fallout, about the dangers of radioactive strontium fallout getting into their foodchain from berries, and potentially their traditional bushtucker ?
Have any Aboriginal people in South Australia, let alone across Australia, ever heard any of this discussed for their benefit, let alone have ever at all been warned about anything like this radioactive contamination which in South Australia is in complete breach of the 1836 Letters Patent ?
But it's never too late to pursue the 1836 Letters Patent - Cf the view of Berlin's finance senator, Ulrich Nussbaum:
"This case shows that debts always catch up with you, no matter how old they are"
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-20/hamlet-asked-to-pay-historic-debt/...
Centuries-old debt comes back to bite Berlin
Posted July 20, 2012 00:30:54
A sleepy hamlet in eastern Germany could become one of the richest towns in the world if Berlin were to repay it an outstanding debt dating back to 1562.
A certificate of debt, found in a regional archive, attests that Mittenwalde lent Berlin 400 guilders on May 28, 1562, to be repaid with 6 per cent interest per year.
According to Radio Berlin Brandenburg (RBB), the debt would amount to 11,200 guilders today, which is roughly equivalent to 112 million euros ($136 million).
Adjusting for compound interest and inflation, the total debt now lies in the trillions, by RBB's estimates.
Town historian Vera Schmidt found the centuries-old debt slip in the archive, where it had been filed in 1963.
Though the seal is missing from the document, Ms Schmidt said she was certain the slip was still valid.
"In 1893 there was a debate in which the document was examined and the writing was determined to be authentic," Ms Schmidt said.
Ms Schmidt and Mittenwalde's mayor, Uwe Pfeiffer, have tried to ask Berlin for their money back.
Such requests have been made every 50 years or so since 1820 but always to no avail.
Reclaiming the debt would bring significant riches to Mittenwalde, a seat of power in the middle ages, which now has a population of just 8,800.
Red brick fragments of medieval fortifications still dot the leafy town centre.
The town's Romanesque church was once the provost seat for Paul Gerhardt, one of Germany's most prolific hymn writers.
Gerhardt, who lived there briefly in the 17th century, is the only noted Mittenwalde resident to date.
Ms Schmidt and Mr Pfeiffer met Berlin's finance senator, Ulrich Nussbaum, who ceremonially handed them a historical guilder from 1539.
The guilder was put in a temporary display at the Mittenwalde museum.
"This case shows that debts always catch up with you, no matter how old they are," Mr Nussbaum told local media.
The debt-laden German capital would have difficulty meeting Mittenwalde's demands anyway.
According to a report released by the senate finance administration in June, Berlin is already close to 63 million euros in the red.
Reuters