Attempted dispossession for a second time by 'Aboriginal Troopers'

Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation Troopers from left: Edward Fry (Chairperson), Roy Ah-See, Patricia Crossin, Bruce Martin, Donna Odegaard (Image in the foreground: Members of the Native Mounted Police at Rockhampton in 1864 'cropped' - State Library of Queensland).

6 April 2021

The Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation (ILSC) are attempting to dispossess the Euahlayi Nation's Ghurrie clan of their land on the NSW/QLD border which was purchased for them by the Indigenous Land Corporation (ILC) back in 1998.
 

Ghillar, Michael Anderson, Convenor of the Sovereign Union, last surviving member of the founding four of the Aboriginal Embassy and Head of State of the Euahlayi Peoples Republic is now confronted with a new version of the fight for Land Rights.

Ghillar says that the Indigenous Land Corporation (ILC now ILSC, Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation) purchased land in 1998 for his clan, the Ghurrie of the Euahlayi Nation, whose lands were repatriated as 'redress for dispossession' by way of The Land Fund and Indigenous Land Corporation Act 1995, which has been compiled into the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Act 2005. The ILSC severed its ownership of the land by transferring it to a land-holding body for the Traditional Owners, but now in 2021 the ILSC has filed for vacant possession of Ghillar's People's lands in the NSW Supreme Court.

“Our People are now facing being dispossessed for a second time by a colonial regime in the guise of the ILSC, run by ‘black trackers’. This is in opposition to the 1960 UN Resolution 1514 (XV) to end colonialism in all its manifestations, the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, which Australia ratified.

Theo van Boven’s Basic principles and guidelines on the right to a remedy and reparation for victims of gross violations of international human rights law and serious violations of international humanitarian law includes a ‘guarantees of non-repetition and prevention’.

“When we marched the streets for Land Rights in the 1970s, it was impossible to conceive that, if and when we won Land Rights, two things would occur.

“Firstly, black trackers would work against us and agree to a colonial regime that limited and severely restricted our capacities to get our lands back, including the Native Title Act 1993 as amended. We knew and asserted right from the beginning that we were neither a conquered People, nor had we acquiesced in the face of foreign military might and thus acquiesce and cede our rights to the foreign power. We could anticipate that anyone with a bit of common sense would understand that the Country was not terra nullius and unoccupied at first contact.

“A shocking realisation is that from the 1860s Queensland grabbed a group of men and set up a military guerrilla-type training centres in Queensland, with the objective of sending out Black Trackers with guns to shoot Black resisters with impunity.

“Secondly, in this the 21st century, universities are now the place for the training of similar type of black trackers, quislings. It is extremely disappointing to think that there is a selected few who have been handpicked by government to do to us now, what the black trackers did from the 1800s.

“The current Board of the ILSC is Edward Fry, Chair, whose mother is a Dagoman from Katherine, NT; Joseph Elu, Deputy Chair, from Torres Strait; Roy Ah-see, Wiradjuri; Anthony Ashby, Gumilaroi/ Yuwaalarray; and Patricia Crossin, former Senator for Northern Territory; Tanya Hosch; Bruce Martin, Wik-Neathan from Cape York; Donna Odegarrd AM, Larrakia, Darwin, NT; Daniel Tucker, Wongatha-Mirning, WA.

When we marched the streets for Land Rights in the 1970s, it was impossible to conceive that, if and when we won Land Rights, these things would occur,' Ghillar, Michael Anderson, the last surviving member of the founding four of the Aboriginal Embassy said.

“These are the quisling ‘black trackers’ who are seeking to retake our lands from our Ghurrie People. The repatriation of some of our lands was an attempt at reparation for the wrongdoings of the colonial authorities. I do not believe that a Torres Strait Islander should have the right to vote to take our lands back to dispossess us a second time, not to mention the other Aboriginal board members who have no tie to our Peoples’ lands. We cannot understand the mindset of Anthony Ashby, who belongs to a neighbouring clan of the Euahlayi/ Yuwaalarray. By doing what they are doing they are breaking First Nation’s Law and custom – but that does not seem to bother them, because clearly they suffer from Stockholm Syndrome.

“The principle that C. D. Rowley addressed in his 1978 book The Destruction of Aboriginal Society resonates with the ILSC’s move to take our land back, when he wrote that the Christians, who were sent out to our Peoples to spread Christianity, were essentially promoting the notion that God will not forget you, believe in him and you will get Land Rights in heaven.

“Australia’s fear of being decolonised was expressed in 1998 by the Samuel Griffith Society of Constitutional lawyers when Dr Stephen Davis delivered his paper Native Title: A Path to Sovereignty to former Prime Minister John Howard:

‘The issue of domestic sovereignty is set to dominate future international discussions of indigenous rights and discussions made by the United Nations, together with precedents in other countries, could potentially change the map of this country. Land rights and native title in Australia are examples of a very dynamic debate which is open ended, and which can be simply linked to international conventions and trends to develop a credible basis for a range of outcomes with far reaching irreversible consequences.
 
‘Australians tend to take their sovereignty for granted. That sovereignty is now being contested. We must become more aware of the issues, the players and be prepared to defend our sovereignty if we are to maintain it.’
 

[ Davis, Stephen 1998, Native Title; A Path to Sovereignty (pdf) ]

Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation Troopers rounding up our people (Image: Chez Les Cannibales, 1889 - Queensland Historical Atlas)

“Clearly, the new university educated Black Trackers follow these principles because they don’t want to upset their colonial masters, who are ruthlessly dominating us as an occupying State and ruling with impunity and who continue to create major facades on the false pretence that they are consulting with the grass roots, but the grass roots are not falling for it.”

Contact: Ghillar Michael Anderson
Convenor of the Sovereign Union,
Head of State of the Euahlayi Peoples Republic
Contact Details here