History

Our people are surrendering their homelands forever with Indigenous Land Use Agreements (ILUAs) without understanding they are whitewashing their own history, under the invaders' law. This surrendering trick takes effect before the deed of grant of land is issued to the shires of the whole area. In this way compensation is also avoided. This article provides a background to some of the illegal and fraudulent acts carried out preceding Native Title and how the Native Title Act 1993 was amended in 1998 to create 'bucket loads of extinguishment' of inherent rights. [node:read-more:link]

Ghillar, Michael Anderson has recently been sent a letter from one of our people caught up in a Native Title claim and who is trying to understand if there are any benefits that result from the Native Title process. She asked me to interpret the letter (attached in article) from the Commonwealth Attorney-General's Native Title Unit and for me to give my opinion as to the truth of the Attorney-General's position ... From my understanding of history and the colonial law I can categorically say that the Attorney-General's position is wrong and is deliberately misleading the Native Title claimant. [node:read-more:link]

When you know who owned the stations on which Aboriginals were killed and the names of the politicians who knowingly allowed it all to happen, you also know the Who's Who of colonial Australia.

It is horrific to read, in fine detail, what was done to hundreds of innocent men, women and children. That is why some people still want this history to remain hidden.

Tony Roberts 'The Monthly Essays' November 2009 [node:read-more:link]

We can say that Aboriginal people throwing spears at the first white man was an act of sovereign Peoples in defense of their lands, territories and dominions.

If we are to examine the political legal action by the people and their spear throwing, it was a military exercise authorised by their law and customs which, in total, represented an Act of State on behalf of the People. They were exercising their sovereign right to defend what was theirs. [node:read-more:link]

In April 1789, a sudden, unusual, epidemic of smallpox was reported amongst the Port Jackson Aboriginal tribes who were actively resisting settlers from the First Fleet.

This outbreak may have killed over 90 per cent of nearby native families and maybe three quarters or half of those between the Hawkesbury River and Port Hacking. It also killed an unknown number at Jervis Bay and west of the Blue Mountains [node:read-more:link]

While the 1992 Mabo judgement was a major milestone in Aboriginal history, we must remember that the judges in this case presented the same cowardice as Justice Blackburn in the Millirrpum Gove case in the 1970s.

In the Gove case, the court gave much weight to the evidence presented by anthropologist Ronald Berndt who coined the phrase, "the Aborigines don't own the land, the land owns them" or words to that effect, thus resigning our people to forever being part of the natural flora and fauna of this country. It must also be stated that the Gove matter was not presented with the 1872 Pacific islanders Protection Act as amended in 1875.

In the Gove matter Justice Blackburn was presented with enough evidence to permit him to make the same conclusions as did the High Court in Mabo but failed to do so. I think this was because of the extent of uncertainty the decision would have presented the Australian state, territory and federal governments in respect to land rights for the white population. [node:read-more:link]

With a new and exciting future ahead, Michael Anderson reminds us of where we have been in the past 40 years in respect of our struggle for land rights, sovereignty, restitution and compensation, and what has been said and acted upon by the governments.

He presents an overview of our struggle for sovereignty and outlines the importance of standing our ground. This article includes examples of the concerns the state and territories have in respect of our potential claims that will come their way.