First Nations Sovereignty New Way

First Nations Sovereignty New Way: Michael Anderson at the Maleny Neighborhood Center 22 August 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBz7GLP0vs8 

On 22 August 2014, Ghillar Michael Anderson delivered a presentation entitled 'First Nations Sovereignty New Way - The survival of our Mother Earth and our very right to exist is what we have to defend.' to a packed house at the Maleny Neighborhood Centre in Maleny, Queensland.

EXCERPTS from my transcript...mb   (Full transcription available on request):

(2hours 3 minutes in)

 “All I’m trying to do now is focus my mob back into paying attention to who they are, what they are, and build that history around them … go back to their country and claim from within their country. Talk with the white people. I’ve got farmers now ringing me up asking me for town hall meetings, and asking; where do we fit?  And one of the rules on my claiming the land back in NSW under white law is that I must notify all the land owners that they can stay there. That’s one of the conditions of the case. But that they’ll be paying my mob rent, not Queen Elizabeth.

[Audience: But like you’ve said before, if you win then Australian society as we know it will come apart, and they won’t allow that to happen, so what is the compromise you will be offering?]

The compromise is that we get rid of all the shires, states and territories….  And then we have the tribal boundaries drawn up again and the white people within there will form governance with the Aboriginal people of that nation, then they govern themselves on country. So it’s for black and white, and as far as the resources they get from inside their boundary are concerned, that nation develops its own resources, makes its own money and the commonwealth get whatever their little dues are, their little revenues from that.

We’ve got a constitution now that’s been formulated where were designing this area -  we’re already into the process of changing the law, changing the land title, and issuing new land title to white people – that means for banks they can’t draw that money that those people owe them. Once we change the title, the banks have got nothing to hold any more. So the banks are gone. We’ll get rid of the banks very easily … done. 

But in that system, we say to the non-Aboriginal people; we give you a permanent residency status. So if you leave our country and you move somewhere else, well it’s just like in Germany – when you go from one city to another, you go into the municipal civil administration office and inform them you’ve bought a house ‘here’, this is where I’m going to be living, you pay a fee, they give you a registration and identity form that you now belong to that city.  So if you move out of our country, you are no longer a permanent resident of the part Euahlayi nation, you are part of another Aboriginal nation. And so you get rid of all the local governments and then the white people will elect their elders to an elders council, and they’ll have one male and one female representative to the elders council, but we’ll have the four different tribes with their elders elected and so we will always be in the majority. But white residents will be part of the decision making process within that nation. So they become part of the sovereign nation….you own the land, you benefit, you run farms, you run businesses, you do everything you do normally – nothing changes except that you have a permanent residency within our nation and you’ll have an ID card to give you that authority. So we’ll change your licences so you drive in our country on our licence.

So we’ve got it all mapped out in a constitutional construct, we’ve got a system set up similar to Germany where I lived for a number of years. Same as Switzerland…so we’ve taken their ideas in terms of the taxes and paying rates on land.

[Audience:  Isn’t it going to be such a big job explaining this to everyone? I just remember the up the uproar and backlash after Mabo – ‘they’ll be claiming our backyards’!]

Yes, they were really horrified weren’t they the poor buggers! No it’s easy. The one that will suck them in is when we say we’re already… I’m in negotiations with the American Indians, the six nation Indian group …they’re the richest mob of native Americans and they’ve got more money that some of the states in the US actually  ..they’re very wealthy …they have their own banks, casinos, the whole lot. And I’m negotiating now with them to bring their bank into our country and start branches. Then we tell the white farmers, you keep your title, we change the title, you put that title in there, we take over that loan and we pay out your other loan from your other bank, PISS THEM OFF OUT OF OUR COUNTRY [NB CBA] and you take a loan out with us, you get the same back-up. And the American nations have their own insurance companies, so were negotiating with their insurance companies as well. And then everyone else, we don’t want you, get out of here. If you don’t want to live here, feel free to go.

So it’s working. The hardest part now is working out where we generate the revenue from, to get people, because we’ve got our ministers appointed in the government – we’ve got accountants, we’ve got doctors, we’ve got lawyers, we’ve got physiotherapists, we’ve got all sorts. Part of my family are teachers, they’re teaching physicians in Newcastle John Hunter Hospital, they run the administration of Taree Hospital, they’re doctors… my nephew is second-in-charge of the Sydney roosters, we’ve got Euahlayi accountants running all the Gadigal Corporation, I’ve got cousins who are accountants, we’ve got lawyers… so we have the professionals within our nation state who are black who can do everything that we need to do.  But we also have white people who want to come in as well, and we say you are welcome …you want to come in? Come, your quite welcome… the more the merrier. And were negotiating with one fella now who wants to build a themed city, a ‘techno’ city – he’s off to London next week but he’s got investors now and they want to experiment with the building of a city out of bamboo. We’re negotiating that right now…a high-tech bamboo city. So that will bring professionals in. And a couple of his leading investors have left Microsoft and now work for him and they are going to move into my country and build this techno city.

So were moving along, putting the foundations down let’s say, and were just saying to the Australian government; I don’t ever talk to you because the Queen is the head of this country, I’ll write letters to her not to the Australian prime minister – I don’t write to the Australian PM, I write to Queen Elizabeth and then she sends all her correspondence back to them – they’re her ministers.

[Audience: So she knows about this?]

Oh yes, Queen Elizabeth knows exactly what’s going on here – truly – she knows all about it, and she’s just been brought to task by a Fijian woman who said to her; you are the Queen who gave our country back over there but you committed a crime against the agreement – you gave it back to the government when you were supposed to give it back to the 13 chiefs who signed the agreement, the ? document of 1871. Because they only took Fiji for 100 years – in 1971 they had to give Fiji back to the people…and they gave it back to the government, not to the 13 chiefs, which was in the contract. So she’s over there now telling Queen Elizabeth; you committed a crime. So Queen Elizabeth has written back and said to the Fiji government; I’m taking a personal interest in how you run your elections and how you run your constitution. So we’ve been very much engaged with Queen Elizabeth – we’ve been writing her a lot of correspondence and putting a lot of pressure on her. And that’s why Quentin Bryce when she left parliament, her last statement was ‘it’s time Australia became a republic’ – she wouldn’t have said that without the Queen’s authority and approval.

[Audience: So are you saying that why that may be beneficial for the Queen if we became a republic is that it absolves her of any responsibility?]

Yes. Absolutely.

[Audience:  But it also dissolves our constitution, I’ve heard…]

Yes well Australia can’t do it until they put something in its place that’s authorised by the people of Australia. They can’t do a damn thing; the Australian government are locked into that system whether they like it or not and it’ll take some very brave heart to make a change. But the changes can come through Aboriginal sovereignty, because then we give legitimacy to the nation as a republic – we create a legitimacy that they can’t have, and that they will never have until they sign up with us.

[Audience: There’s a whole group of people working under the banner of common law, that’s what I’ve been working with – because common law is like universal law that you people have been working with for thousands of years ]

No but that’s the common law of this country, not of England. It’s the common Law of this country and that comes from our Law and our Dreaming …it is not one that’s been imposed upon us from England you see.

And the other thing about our position as well, and I say this as last because it is late…  If you look at the Magna Carta which Australia brought in in 1986 and has become part of Australian law, the Magna Carta of England says that the free people shall not be deprived of their freehold title to their land. And if the people have been de-seized of their land then when the Queen has finished with it, they have to give it back to the people they took it from.

[Audience: So a republic would actually serve you?]

A republic can serve us because they have to give it back to us and then we incorporate the rest of Australia into it. That’s another possible mechanism. And of course the Magna Carta is the one which I’m going to be using to claim our land back in terms of being de-seized of the land, they gave it back to the Welsh, they’re now giving it back to the Scotts …so the precedents are there. I’m not reinventing the wheel here, I’m just doing what’s already spinning….it’s just knowing how to play it. Alrighty…..thank you.”

[Audience: Thank YOU! Applause]