Michael Anderson said predictions that governments in Australia will use superior force to suppress the Aboriginal sovereignty movement have come true. He said that it is evident in the recent assault on the Nyoongar Tent Embassy in Perth where people are asserting their sovereign identity and independence. He warned that this issue will not go away and if police forces continue to use riot squads, mounted police and police dogs against peaceful protesters, then we will have no choice but to take a delegation to the UN and talk with foreign governments ...
The recent demonstrations against expansion of the BHP Roxby Downs uranium mine in South Australia, led by Arabunna Elder, Kevin Buzzacott, highlights how governments and mining companies ignore and completely override the sovereign rights and human rights of First Nations Peoples, writes sovereignty activist, Michael Anderson in a media release.
Mr Anderson is the National Coordinator of the interim National Unity Government of the 'Sovereign Union' which was launched at the 40th anniversary of the embassy in January.
In his statement, he said; 'Kevin Buzzacott's declaration of his People's sovereignty at the protest base camp, near where he was born, 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.'
Two activists at the Olympic Dam locked on to the truck's axles using specially made 'V' locks. The lock loops over the axle and an arm is locked into each end of the 'V'.
One of the protesters who chained himself to an axle said "desperate people do desperate things". "This world has just about had enough of being pillaged by multi-national companies," he said.
Police also arrested two other protesters, a man and a woman, for disobeying police orders to move off the road.
A big part of the reason Aboriginal people are so disadvantaged is because Aboriginal politics is so factionalised. At least, it is if you ask the average white Australian.
We've recently seen the passage of the racist Stronger Futures legislation, which condemns Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory and beyond to another 10 years of intervention. This despite the fact these policies have led directly to a doubling of the suicide and self-harm rates in black communities. And we've seen the same politicians who voted for Stronger Futures — like Senator Penny Wong — demand for themselves equal rights on issues like same-s-x marriage, while other politicians (think Bob Katter) use the issue to ridicule people on the basis of their s-xuality, for their personal political gain.
So to watch a journalist stand at the Press Club and ask an Aboriginal woman why Aboriginal politics is so factionalised makes me want to ... well, behave like a member of the NSW Labor Party. - Chris Graham writes
A grandmother reports from the front-line at the Olympic Dam protest, 'The Lizards Revenge'.
Today (16th July), some protesters had had enough. They took to the road in another attempt to reach the gates. They did. Some knocked down an outside fence but did not breach the second gate to the mine. This tactic may not win too many supporters, but it made international headlines.
I went to the Gates of Hell on 14 July to honour my deceased mother and aunt recalling their anguish at the British atomic tests in the 1950s. Mum died in 2009, still anti-nuclear, still worried about strontium 90 in our milk. My aunty died in Adelaide in 1977, a victim of cancer like all of her neighbours, some of whom had been pastoralists in areas to the north. I’ve always wondered if fallout from the atomic tests was to blame, but how could you prove it?
During local celebrations to mark NAIDOC Week 2012, the idea of a Treaty between Aboriginal people, the British Crown and the Australian Government has been raised by Paster Ossie Cruse.
Talk of a Treaty has been around for decades, but in recent history it has fallen from coverage through the mainstream media. The NSW South Eastern Aboriginal elder, Ossie Cruse believes that Australia's future could be built with a Treaty and such a document would create the Australian identity that the republican debate often talks about.
He spoke on Sydney Radio 702 ABC - An Interview with Ossie Cruse from 'Tracker' is also included.
The spin doctors did an impressive job distracting from the hypocrisy of former prime minister Kevin Rudd's apology to the Stolen Generations in February 2008.
Hundreds of thousands watched the live broadcast as Rudd apologised "for the laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians ... for the breaking up of families and communities ... and for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture..."
... By extending the Intervention with the "Stronger Furures" legislation", Labor is now responsible for what will no doubt be the subject matter of a future prime minister's apology, to the tens of thousands of Indigenous Australians being violently aggrieved as we speak. - Emma Purdy writes
Michael Anderson is interviewed by SBS for NAIDOC Week 2012.
"The main advocacy that we're focusing on of course is still Land Rights. Gary Foley coined the phrase that native title is certainly not land rights and most people now have adopted that slogan, but Aboriginal people are still being deceived in terms of land ... "
"The Sovereignty Movement is becoming an organic movement through the embassies. People are beginning to assert their sovereign rights and say to the Australian Government, 'Hang on a minute, we never ever ceded anything to you ... "
Northern Territory intervention: " ... We want to take control of our own communities, we don't want public servants being our pseudo protectors ... "
Above: A video of Rev Dr Djiniyini Gondarra telling the government about the effects the 'Stronger Futures' intervention will have on the Aboriginal people affected.
Below: 2 audio files of Rev Dr Djiniyini Gondarra talking about the racist and dis-empowing intervention the day after the bill was passed by government.
A respected Yolngu leader has slammed both major parties for passing the Stronger Futures laws, stating they have both "stolen the authority and responsibility of Aboriginal people" and started a "war on democracy".
The Stronger Futures laws, which extend and expand many aspects of the NT intervention, were passed in the Senate on the 28th June, 2012 sitting.
Stronger Futures was passed despite calls for the government to refer it to a parliamentary committee on human rights to scrutinize whether it complied with Australia's international rights obligations.
Yolngu leader Rev Dr Djiniyini Gondarra slammed the government and opposition the day after the legislation was passed, stating both major political parties could not be trusted and has labeled the legislation a "war on democracy".
"In this country we have a very poor understanding of democracy. Government is supposed to belong to the people and be for the people. But Aboriginal people will always be seen as second class citizens in this country," Rev Gondarra said.
The federal government has a blatant disregard for human rights and is engaging in the empowerment of indigenous Australians in the Northern Territory, Amnesty International said a day after federal parliament passed legislation to continue the Northern Territory intervention for another decade.
Earlier, Aboriginal leaders have declared 'a day of mourning.'
Labor and the opposition teamed up to pass the controversial 'Stronger Futures' laws in the Senate in the early hours of Friday morning after a marathon debate, which started early Thursday evening.
The laws were amended to reduce the review period from seven to three years. "Aboriginal communities in the NT have told us time and again that top-down decisions imposed upon them are the wrong approach for tackling the challenges they face,” said Monica Morgan, Manager of Amnesty International’s Indigenous Rights Program.
