He renounced Australia and lives solely by tribal law. Now Murrumu is hitting the road

Murrumu Walubara Yidindji
Erstveröffentlicht: 
08.01.2015

Murrumu Walubara Yidindji gave up Australian money, his citizenship, and now he drives under Yidinji tribal law. For the authorities, it’s a novel situation.

For the past week or so a black 2001 Ford Ka has been cruising Canberra’s streets. It’s a modest, unimposing car that would, except for its distinctive number plates, elicit little attention. The black and gold plates read: “ Yidindji - YID-001 - Pursuant to Yidindji Tribal Law.” The car’s driver is Murrumu Walubara Yidindji, a man in his 40s from the country around Cairns, north Queensland, who last year decided to voluntarily “leave Australia” and live by the tribal law of his Indigenous people, the Yidindji.

 

For Murrumu (formerly the National Indigenous Television political journalist known as Jeremy Geia) leaving Australia almost a year ago began with a series of small practical and equally symbolic steps.

 

He renounced his Australian citizenship, returned his passport and Medicare card to the Australian Commonwealth, and sent his driver’s licence back to the chief minister of the Australian Capital Territory, where he then lived. Then Murrumu – who has since returned to live permanently in Yidindji country – quit his job, gave away most possessions and walked away from his bank savings and a superannuation account built up over two decades.

 

He had, in his words, “abandoned the Australian citizen ship”.

 

Now, during a visit to the national capital he has, since 2 January, been driving around in YID-001, a car that was, Murrumu says, “licensed to the sovereign Yidindji government” on the first day of the new year.

 

The number plates are already in use in Yidindji country. But Murrumu said he decided to release YID-001 “in Ngambri (Canberra in Walgalu, the language of the custodians of the plains upon which the national capital is imposed) for the very symbolic gesture that the head office called Parliament House of the Commonwealth of Australia is located there”.

He said:

 

Most Aussies are learning now that the jurisdiction known as the Commonwealth of Australia does not yet constitutionally recognise the Aboriginal tribes of the geographical land mass known as Australia. The failure to constitutionally recognise the Yidindji in the foundation legal document of the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth of Australia means that the Yidindji ... are not bound by any of the laws and statutes created by the authority of the Australian constitution.

 

Nonetheless, before taking YID-001 for a spin on the Tuggeranong Parkway, Murrumu and his associates did inform the police that the car licensed to the Yidiindji government would be driving on local roads.

 

“The Tuggeranong (police) station accepted our public notices and paperwork. But one officer told me he’s never come across this situation before,” Murrumu said.

 

Doubtless, the police officer was telling the truth. Murrumu’s situation is unusual, though far from unique; in the past month I’ve met other Indigenous Australians from elsewhere on the continent who are also renouncing Australian citizenship in favour of tribal law.

 

Some obvious practical difficulties must be overcome for those who are serious about it.

 

I’ve caught up with Murrumu a few times now since he quit Australia. His resolve and determination do not appear to have diminished despite the prosaic hurdles of renouncing ownership of almost everything, including money. It usually means that when we meet I pay for his cup of English breakfast tea and sandwich. Murrumu – an accomplished artist – uses his work as barter for goods and services, while his supporters provide him with clothing, accommodation, internet access, grocery gift vouchers ... and, of course, petrol for visits to Canberra.

 

During his most recent Canberra visit he opened a Yidindji Embassy in the southern suburb of Kambah with a view to establishing formal diplomatic relations with Australia and other nations.

 

Soon there will be a Yidindji currency and passport. Murrumu and others who have reverted to Yidindji law already carry their own unique tribal identity documents and licences.

There is also, Murrumu said, a Yidindji police force (the Yidindji Mayarra Nyalagi) that has “powers of arrest should people or citizens within the Yidindji territory invoke our jurisdiction, that being the Yidindji tribal jurisdiction or the sovereign Yidindji government jurisdiction”.

He said:

 

This is the very reason we give courtesy notice to the Australian Federal Police and state police when our members are travelling. The Yidindji tribal people are not bound by any laws created subject to the Australian constitution – they are of superior jurisdiction and Australian citizens, including Australian police, must be very careful when encountering people of our jurisdiction. So the Yidindji police are there to protect the Yidindji people and to uphold the laws created by the sovereign Yidindji government.

 

Which is why the police were confused about the Yidindji-licenced car, he said.

 

Due to the lack of ‘constitutional recognition’ they cannot legally see the Yidindji tribal people or its institutions ... All entities such as the Australian Federal Police cannot see behind the very document that created them – the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1901.

 

The reversion to tribal law by Murrumu and others is one of many challenges posed to the “recognise” movement that aims, with bipartisan political support, to have Indigenous people recognised in the Australian constitution.

 

Tony Abbott has vowed to “sweat blood” to achieve a 2017 referendum to recognise Indigenous Australians in the constitution.

 

But support for recognition among Indigenous Australians is fractured; many see recognition as a low order issue after sovereignty, a treaty with the continent’s invaders and possessors, and finding equity in the social and health indicators that divide black and white Australia.

 

The unresolved question of Indigenous sovereignty burns at the core of Australian sovereignty. Murrumu and others are likely to serve as a constant reminder of that as the recognise debate intensifies.

 

“The numbers ... of people reverting to tribal law is growing – many people across the country have followed suit. I am aware of a few hundred across north Australia alone, but not all are with the Yidindji,” Murrumu said.

 

Life under tribal law is fair, just and strict. So people looking to become outlaws will not find protection or asylum in our tribal way of life.

 

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Murrumu has been arrested by the Australian Federal Police in Canberra. It wasn't known where he was for some time but AFP have admitted they arrested him close by the building he was looking at (?) to be the embassy to Australia.
That's all I've been able to find out up to now.

Trudy

Murrumu was kept in custody for three nights on a minor trespass offence after refusing to leave the Canberra property he claimed as an embassy for his Yidindji people. He had allegedly failed to comply with efforts by the ACT Government to evict him from a Kambah building, saying he didn't recognise the government. Local newspaper report:

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/indigenous-man-detained-for-three-nights-after-claiming-canberra-property-as-embassy-20150112-12mg3g.html

Magistrate Bernadette Boss has strongly questioned a decision by prosecutors to pursue a trespass-related charge against Murrumu Walubara Yidindji over the public housing property he was using for his embassy. He was released from custody on Monday. Boss set a court date of 16 February, noting it was a charge that could attract only a fine, the man had already spent "considerable time" in custody and the matter was a "considerable impost on the public purse". Murrumu recently opened a Yidindji embassy in Canberra suburb with a view to establishing formal diplomatic relations with the local Guumaal Ngambri people and other nations. Shane Mortimer, a Guumaal Ngambri elder, said his people owned the "allodial title" and he had given authority to Murrumu to use the land for the embassy. Mortimer said the response of the authorities was "heavy-handed". "All it needed was a conversation," he said. "They've opened up a can of worms that is so big it's going to come back to bite them." Speaking outside court, Murrumu described himself as "a peacemaker" and said he believed the arrest - his first - was unlawful. He said the crown did not have "constitutional powers to force their law on a tribal man like me". "You don't get the authority to move me or tell me what to do because as it stands right now Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are not recognised in the constitution," Murrumu said. "We are not mentioned in the legal foundation document that forms the commonwealth of Australia."

Speaks-about-his-arrest   |   National Indigenous Radio's 'Weekly News-in-Review' - January 16, 2015
http://www.nirs.org.au/_content_data/_files/Weekly%20News%20In%20Review%20-%20Friday%2016%20January%202015.mp3
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8p3lsrb8nglp2pn/Weekly%20News%20In%20Review%20-%20Friday%2016%20January%202015.mp3?dl=0   |   Released from custody, with no bail http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/jan/12/canberra-magistrate-frees-indigenous-trespasser-and-queries-charge   |   NITV News: Yidinji Sovereignty leader murrumu arrested by AFP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKsAN2EHzPk   |   ABC News: Indigenous activist who tried to set up embassy on public housing property faces court for trespass http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-01-12/indigenous-activist-faces-court-for-alleged-trespass/6012906   |   The Canberra Times: Indigenous man detained for three nights after claiming Canberra property as embassy http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/indigenous-man-detained-for-three-nights-after-claiming-canberra-property-as-embassy-20150112-12mg3g.html   |   NIRS: Yidindji man murrumu ordered to reappear in court under previous name Jeremy Geia in February [16th]
http://nirs.org.au/NEWS/Yidindji-man-Murrumu-ordered-to-reappear-in-court-under-previous-name-Jeremy-Geia-in-February   |   WGAR Background to the Aboriginal Sovereignty Movement
https://indymedia.org.au/2014/12/24/wgar-background-to-the-aboriginal-sovereignty-movement   |   To subscribe, email wgar.news@gmail.com and include the words "subscribe WGAR News" in the message header.