Canberra, 6 July 17 - - Aboriginal Tent Embassy statement from the Sacred Fire WALKOUT, read by Les Coe (Wiradjuri), Nioka Coe (Wiradjuri) and Ruth Gilbert (Wiradjuri), at the Sacred Fire, Aboriginal Embassy Canberra, on 6.7.2017.
We, the First Nations People who gathered at the Sacred Fire of the Aboriginal Embassy on 24-25 June 2017, reject the ‘Uluru Statement from the Heart’ and its Guiding Principles. The ‘Uluru Statement’ is a reflection of the corrupt proceedings of the Referendum Council’s Regional Dialogues and the National Constitutional Convention, held at the Ayers Rock Resort near Uluru, Northern Territory, from 23-26 May 2017.
We assert that all First Nations have retained Law, language, land, culture, governance and the ability to enter into international relations on this island continent now known as Australia. Our Law continues to be the continental common law of the land. We live under the duress of a cold war of attrition and continuing genocide perpetrated by the Commonwealth of Australia, governing in right of the Crown of the United Kingdom.
We oppose the power of the British colonial Commonwealth of Australia who continues to illegally occupy our lands, territories, waters and airways.
We are aware that the United Nations understands Australia’s illegal status as a UN Member State and has instructed the Australian Government to decolonise from Britain. However, our First Nations pre-existing and continuing sovereignty is blocking them, as confirmed in 2010 by the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). CERD advised the Australian government of the need to reset its relationship with First Nations by way of Treaty/ies.
We assert that the Commonwealth, State and Territory Constitutions do not have a constitutional head of power to pass any laws which affect, impact, or diminish the continental Sovereignty of First Nations and Peoples. This is the reason why the Commonwealth, via the Prime Minister and Cabinet’s Referendum Council, is so intent to coerce our people and manufacture consent for the colonial power to govern First Nations Peoples in right of the Crown of the United Kingdom.
The great First Nations chant of ‘Sovereignty Never Ceded’ is being challenged and betrayed by treasonous agents of the coloniser. It is being orchestrated behind the scenes by puppeteers, including but not limited to, the Co-Chair of the Referendum Council, Mark Leibler, who supports military occupation.
We are not Australian citizens. We are outside of the Australian constitution as ‘aliens’ to its governance. At present, the Commonwealth Government of Australia allegedly acquired the right, by way of the 1967 constitutional referendum, to pass ‘special measure’ laws for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples as an alien race, outside of the Australian citizenry, by evoking the race power of Section 51 Subsection 26.
We demand that the Commonwealth government desist from its deceitful intent to usurp our sovereignty through a war of stealth, by resetting the invaders’ relationship with Sovereign First Nations, without identifying the terms of its agenda. This is both immoral and unethical. It is indeed an act of war, being publicly spun as a ‘well overdue obligation’ on the part of the invader state to incorporate the invaded Sovereign First Nations’ inhabitants into Australia’s colonial Constitution.
In this way, the Commonwealth will create a specific head of power to pass laws with respect to Sovereign First Nations and assimilate our people into the invader’s constitution by the acquiescence and/or surrender of our inherent sovereign rights, which clears the pathway for Australia to decolonise from the Crown of the United Kingdom.
Only one pathway for the referendum was argued by the National Constitutional Convention: that of First Nations’ inclusion in the Constitution. All other options were gagged.
Wrong way legal advice was endorsed by the Referendum Council to fool our people into believing that inclusion into the constitution would not impact on our inherent pre-existing Sovereign rights. Also, to have a ‘Voice’ and a ‘national advisory organisation’ does not require a referendum.
No genuine mandate to make decisions on behalf of First Nations belonged to the majority of participants at the National Constitutional Convention. The 12 Regional Dialogues were closed invitation-only meetings, from which 10 ‘delegates’ were ‘elected’ to make up 60% of the ‘delegates’ at the Convention. Once the Referendum Council and its organisers, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Studies (AIATSIS), realised they had lost the numbers for constitutional inclusion, an executive decision was made by the powers that be to stack the National Constitutional Convention with their paid staff and facilitators, whom they called ‘delegates’. This created a major conflict of interest.
Additionally, 20% of the participants at the Convention came from organisations, which had already been held to ransom to promote the agenda of the Recognise campaign and the Referendum Council in order to continue receiving government funding. A further 20% were individuals selected by government as ‘delegates’.
The Referendum Council refused all recording of the National Constitution Convention to maintain the veil of secrecy, in order to protect Point 10 of the Guiding Principles to the ‘Uluru Statement’, which states: ‘Does not interfere with current and future legal arrangements.’ In this sentence, the treasonous compromise to maintain the status quo is spelt out clearly.
The proposed Makarrata agreement-making is about domestic contracts, which will keep First Nations under a colonial constitution’s head of power. The deep meaning of Makarrata is misunderstood as it is a complex and high-level ceremony, which can result in the death of the guilty party and/or blood-letting, and is designed to restore social harmony once the wrong has been dealt with. In the 1980s the Makarrata terminology was strongly rejected by Central Desert communities during the National Aboriginal Conference (NAC) Treaty consultation process.
We support the demand for ‘Truth Before Treaty/Treaties’ in a Truth and Justice process, which exposes the crimes perpetrated by the past and ongoing genocide and gross violations of Human Rights of First Nations Peoples in Australia. This will confirm the British and Australians have, and are, benefitting from the proceeds of horrendous crimes against the innocent.
We are developing agreements between families and clans, which lead to Sovereign Treaties between First Nations that are independent from the illegal occupying colonial power ruling in right of the Crown of the United Kingdom.
Turning the ‘Aboriginal Embassy into stone’ is the worst form of appropriation of the spearhead of the Sovereignty Movement. The Aboriginal Embassy maintains the resistance to the invading power.
We call on all Sovereign First Nations Peoples across the Country to engage with the mainstream public to establish a national process, which culminates in the rewriting of a new and modern constitution for a Republic. This must be underpinned by First Nations Sovereignty of the ancient continental common Law established by Tjurkurpa, Goomarra, also known as the Law of Natural Creation.
We Respect the Rights of Mother Earth as fundamentally integral to the wellbeing of humanity.
Statement was prepared at the Sacred Fire, Aboriginal Embassy, Canberra, by the Walkout Collective – the First Nations representatives who walked out from the National Constitutional Convention in protest on 24 May 2017, and participants of the First Nations Rise Up meeting held at the Aboriginal Embassy on 24-25 June 2017.
ATTENTION MEDIA: Key links to further information
Formal Complaint to Commonwealth Ombudsman Mr Michael Manthorpe against Referendum Council Dialogue processes & National Convention at Uluru
http://nationalunitygovernment.org/pdf/2017/170518F-SU-REF%20Council-OMBUDSMAN.pdf
Detailing the Flaws and Farce of the Referendum Council’s 2017 Sydney Dialogue’
http://nationalunitygovernment.org/content/detailing-flaws-and-farce-referendum-councils-2017-sydney-dialogue
Sovereign Union Proclamation: First Nations' Sovereignty
(with Introduction & Video Readings), Parliament House, Canberra, dated 26 Jan 2017
http://www.sovereignunion.mobi/content/proclamation-introduction-video-readings
First Nations Rise Up Rally: http://www.sovereignunion.mobi/content/riseup-gathering-aboriginal-embassy-june-2017
Further Information:
Website: www.sovereignunion.mobi Contact: Ghillar, Michael Anderson: 0499 080 660 Ghillar29@gmail.com; SovereignUnion1@gmail.com
Video Testimony at the Sacred Fire of the Aboriginal Embassy, 24 -25 June 2017: (including 22 June 2017 First Nations Rise Up Rally outside Parliament House)
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Marjorie Thorpe; Gunnai & Maar: https://youtu.be/BVrWGkwpIiQ
Clayton Simpson; Gamilaraay/Yuwaalaraay/Ngemba: https://youtu.be/HP4O1CMOols
Jenny Munro; Wiradjuri: https://youtu.be/7h4ZeFBJFt8
Lynda-June Coe; Wiradjuri & Torres Strait Islander: https://youtu.be/WHa3M61ULec
Serena Simpson; Ngunnawal & Wiradjuri: https://youtu.be/DOKIPseu7Qw
William Tompkins; Ngunnawal & Wiradjuri: https://youtu.be/spCP4nIdZYQ
Les Coe; Wiradjuri: https://youtu.be/v5Znv1Vqu-8
Ghillar, Michael Anderson; Euahlayi: https://youtu.be/xrzNQ1tjD1E
Group burning the Australian Constitution at Parliament House-
‘Australia is in need of a NEW constitution’: https://youtu.be/nr2upFQT5vk
Video testimonies about the Referendum Council’s National Constitutional Convention and Regional Dialogues
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Northern Land Council delegates: http://bit.ly/2sJK24j
Ghillar, Michael Anderson; Euahlayi: https://youtu.be/EmvHNZZNIrM
Robbie Thorpe; Gunnai: http://bit.ly/2uNoQXD
Vivian Malo; Gooniyandi: http://bit.ly/2uNp3Kp
Owen Torres: https://youtu.be/bi7LW6SZdaw
Phillip Wilykuna: https://youtu.be/_99H_KYVh_E
Ghillar, Michael Anderson; Euahlayi: https://youtu.be/YI-fr80lEDs
Ghillar, Michael Anderson; Euahlayi: https://youtu.be/ebH4jQ7pvg0
Ghillar, Michael Anderson; Euahlayi: https://youtu.be/eotyVUqixr0
Ghillar, Michael Anderson; Euahlayi: https://youtu.be/YGZa00XzhJ4
Ghillar, Michael Anderson; Euahlayi: https://youtu.be/J3LtQDREaHk
Gwenda Stanley; Gomeroi & Wakka: http://bit.ly/2uN6UfZ
Walkout Media Conference: http://bit.ly/2tsJKvG
Prof. Gracelyn Smallwood; Birrigubba, Kalkadoon: http://bit.ly/2tLX6Gh
Ghillar, Michael Anderson; Euahlayi: https://youtu.be/YGZa00XzhJ4
Ghillar, Michael Anderson; Euahlayi: https://youtu.be/EmvHNZZNIrM
Tjilpi Murray George; Pitjantjatjara Yankunyjatjara: http://bit.ly/2uNs9OE
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All videos are subject to copyright. Permission to use videos must be sought from Eleanor Gilbert, Enlightning Productions, and from the relevant speakers.
Eleanor Gilbert contact email: enlightning.productions@gmail.com; Phone: 0421 795 639.
Explanatory Notes and Questions
Sell Out On Treaty - The Conservative Push
The Government created Conservative Black Political elite have sold us out in their agreement with the Referendum’s Council’s pre-determined agenda. This agenda is to steal the Sovereignty over the continent now called Australia using laws imported by the British Crown.
Where does this compromise of principles lead us? If you listen to the likes of the Government’s paid Referendum Council through Noel Pearson, it will not diminish our argument of never ceding our Sovereignty to the British Crown, when this is exactly what they are seeking to do through their wilful deceit.
The Referendum Council, their agents and their Conservative Black elite do not speak for the delegates that walked out of their National Constitutional Convention, not the many other First Nations Representatives who walked out of the National Constitutional Convention in opposition to their insidious and unlawful agenda. Nor do they speak for the many thousands of Wiradjuri people and hundreds of thousands of other Sovereign First Nations Peoples.
We speak for ourselves in our struggle for self-determination and acknowledgement of our Sovereignty. The delegates from the Dubbo, Melbourne and Canberra Dialogues seemed to represent the group who did not fall for the lies at Ayers Rock Resort near Uluru, who stood tall and walked away as a means of demonstrating opposition to this scandalous, deceitful process.
The Conservative white ‘experts’, led by Mr Noel Pearson, told us that the time is now right for a push to be ‘recognised’ in the Australian Constitution by the Liberal Conservative mainstream party, with bipartisan support. According to them, NOW is the only time we have to decide this issue of national significance.
Their instrument was the Referendum Council, who by their wilful blindness are attempting to sow the seeds for our surrender in our battle to define who we are and what we stand for.
We do not, have not and will not surrender our position as the rightful Sovereign Owners of these, our Lands and Territories.
In all of the Referendum Council’s Dialogues we were placed under duress to force and suspend our Sovereign rights and to believe that only their white conservative constitutional lawyers will deliver us any sort of justice within the national framework of Australia, with their flawed insular model.
The critical issue not on the table, and not explained by the Referendum Council, is that this agreement making does not and will not address the question of ultimate root Sovereignty, which the High Court conveniently left unanswered by their legal reasoning in the Mabo decision. Any attempts by Aboriginal Australia to resolve this issue through political and legal means within the Australian System has always and always will be doomed to failure.
The agreement that Noel Pearson had already made prior to the National Constitutional Convention consists of this false assertion that the illegal sovereignty transported from England back in 1788 is not to be disturbed in any way, shape or form by the Constitutional reform process. Point 10 of the Guiding Principles accompanying the ‘Uluru Statement from the Heart states that the process: ‘Does not interfere with current and future legal arrangements’. So in one sentence, the compromise is already spelt out quite clearly.
The question of the Sovereignty of pre-existing and continuing First Nations of this island continent now known as Australia is not addressed, nor is the question addressed in 2017, other than the consideration of biased non-Aboriginal ‘experts’, heavily influenced by self-interest in maintaining the skeletal framework of a system designed by a colonial power to usurp and protect their historical and ongoing crimes against Sovereign First Nations.
How much was Noel Pearson and his ‘white expert lawyers’ paid to dismiss and reach their conflicting expert opinion on First Nations Sovereignty? This critical point had already been pre-determined by people with a conflict of interest in the whole process, in wanting to build a one-way road, the Noel Pearson Road Map that goes nowhere, based on previous failed government experiments. It is there for everyone to see and make their minds up about.
Referendum Council Trail of Tears - Why the URGENT Need for the Charade?
The sheer arrogance of the Referendum Council, its servants and players, both black and white, firstly sought to deliberately misinform those delegates of the true nature of the supposed Uluru discussion, and then silenced them when they arrived at Ayers Rock Resortnear Uluru. Delegates were expecting open discussions, with a fundamental and vital freedom of speech.
That is the rub. There was no debate, no open dialogue about the one option on the table. One preferred option is not a discussion nor a debate, it is more about conflicting self-interest overruling the interest of a whole race of people and decided in secret back room meetings well in advance of the Uluru dialogue, to the extent that the Referendum Council had already printed off what it saw as the only viable option on the table for discussion.
The Noel Pearson model, endorsed by Pat Anderson, Megan Davies and others, had been bedded down for months, if not years beforehand. The deceit perpetrated on the delegates was shameful. The stacked dialogue was supported by the majority of self-appointed conservative black elites and Representative Bodies, who were servicing their own self-interest to continue to control and gorge themselves of the Government black money stream for years to come.
On the question of ‘delegates’ and the Referendum Council’s paid facilitators, we First Nations Peoples demand clarity about who had voting rights at the National Constitutional Convention. We demand under Freedom of Information that the names of all delegates including all Referendum Council facilitators and convenors (government employees) are released for public scrutiny. We demand to know who was selected at each of the 12 ‘Dialogues’ held around the country and at the one day Canberra ‘Information Day’, from which delegates were chosen, and to know what nations they are from.
We also demand full and transparent information as to which organisations they are employed by, and how many voting participants of the National Constitutional Convention had received monies, and how much, from the Referendum Council to support and vote for the Referendum Council’s agenda.
We demand transparency too about the fact that Delegates and Referendum Council staff had all expenses paid to attend the Dialogues and Convention, including how much was paid to each individual and their employees, agents, facilitators and convenors. We demand complete transparency to allow for full public scrutiny of the Referendum Council’s processes during their operational period.
Why were the Referendum Council’s paid employees given full participation including voting rights at the Referendum Council’s National Constitutional Convention, which is a direct and blatant conflict of interest? Who had voting rights – delegates or facilitators? This was the first question put to the floor on the first day of the National Constitutional Convention.
It was conveniently left unanswered by all in the room except those who repeatedly tried to raise the issue. The facilitators who ran the Dialogues and the Referendum Council’s National Constitutional Convention also endorsed the deceit at Ayers Rock Resort near Uluru, by having voting rights and not once declaring their extraordinary conflict of interest.
The Government’s timeline drove the urgency at the National Convention. The Referendum Council and the Government’s appointed panel of experts have had years to draft their position. The elected delegates from each of the Dialogues had only three days to consider the matter - without even sighting any form of proposed Constitutional amendments at either the Regional Dialogues or the National Constitutional Convention. They were expected to blindly follow the conservative black elite’s and government’s agenda without any time to analyse, digest or seek independent expert advice on matters of such importance, let alone discuss and debate these matters between delegates or consult with or gain a mandate from their own Nations and Peoples.
Compromise for the White Man’s Lies
The agreement to take an action that only speaks the truth of the invader’s history, which is steeped in the power of superior force and control over all that is truth by perpetuating their false history, is not addressed in any way shape or form, so the battles of the past are condemned to be the battles of the future. We cannot agree to the white man’s version of history. We cannot agree to expunge the massacres, to forgive and forget the murders and massacres of innocent First Nations land owners, and let the country’s invader be rewarded for its criminal past - and to then project that past into the future.
We call for a Truth and Justice Commission
Only one pathway was open for discussion at the Referendum Council’s National Constitutional Convention. Alternative pathways were silenced. The exit route is already in place on the only road on the map for the rich and powerful murderers, rapist, paedophiles, and convicts, to keep the proceeds of their crimes. We believe at the end of the day that those who perpetrated and continue to inflict the terra nullius holocaust on Sovereign First Nations are being given the opportunity to absolve themselves of all crimes they committed against all Sovereign First Nations Peoples in the recent past, present and well into the future.
They are denying the past, denying the future; something Mr Pearson had already given much thought to - how to let white Australia off the hook for their crimes of genocide and continuing gross violations of Human Rights.
The Referendum Council’s wrong way legal advice is perfecting the trickery to coerce First Nations Peoples to be assimilated into the colonial constitution, and in this way, there can no longer be Sovereign Treaty/ies under the international law of the Vienna Convention of the Law of Treaties.
No repatriations, no compensation, no atrocities committed, no terra nullius holocaust, no Sovereignty, – this is Mr Pearson’s Road Map to Nowhere. A one way road to more of the same through mainstreaming, guided by misleading signs to a brighter future lined with empty promises. It’s a road to hell we will not be allowed to come back from, while guaranteeing the black money stream for the self-serving black conservative elite.
Dialogue about real Sovereign Treaties was never on the table, and will never be on any future table, under the Noel Pearson, Pat Anderson, Megan Davies, Mark Leibler (and others) one-lane road to hell.
No Other Option was on the Table – Let’s Discuss Our Own Anyway
We Respect the Rights of Mother Earth as fundamentally integral to the wellbeing of humanity.
Ecuador and Brazil’s Constitutions recognise the rights of the Indigenous peoples of that country, eg: “… the original peoples whose rights precede the State of Brazil.” This means, in simple language, that their First Peoples rights override the rights of the State.
WE DEMAND AN END TO THE GENOCIDE FIRST. The harm from this current government, which has also come all previous Australian governments ruling in right of the British Crown, must STOP before any meaningful negotiations can proceed.
We also demand open meetings, all conflicts of interest declared; an Agenda with Reparations, Compensation, Royalties, a Black Parliament freely chosen by First Nations people only, First Nations Law as the only applicable Law, Truth and Justice, and an Acceptance of our pre-existing and continuing First Nations Sovereignty.
Names and Nations of the First Nations Walk Out group from the Referendum Council’s National Constitutional Convention, 25 May 2017.
Note - this list is not exhaustive: others walked out who did not note their details on the day.
Serena Williams (Ngunnawal & Wiradjuri), Kathleen Terrick (Tati Tati, Mutthi Mutthi, Wurundjeri & Bidawal Nations), Harry Terrick (Wurundjeri & Bidawal), Bill Nicholson (Wurundjeri & Dja Dja Wurrung), Jenny Munro (Wiradjuri), Lyall Munro (Komilaroi), Hazel Atkinson (Wamba Wamba), Irene Peachey (Wiradjuri), Lidia Thorpe (Gunditjmara & Gunnai Kurnai), Ruth Gilbert (Wiradjuri), Jacinta Morgan (wasn't written on notepad), Narelle Hutchings (Wiradjuri), Craig Everett (Palawa), Cameron Manning (Gommeroi), Lynda-June Coe (Wiradjuri and Torres Strait Islander), Les Coe (Wiradjuri), Roxley Foley (Gumbaynggirr & Kaurna), Jason Kelly (Mutthi Mutthi & Wamba Wamba), Raymond Finn (Wankangurru), Dean Morgan (Dadaway & Gidga & Mirring), Kayleen Brown (Wiradjuri), David Peachey (Wiradjuri), Clayton Simpson (Gamilaraay/Yuwaalaraay/Ngemba), Robert Thorpe (Gunnai), Vivian Malo (Gooniyandi), Matthew Coe (Wiradjuri), Andrew Coe (Wiradjuri), Vanessa Lennon Coe (Anangu), Darlene Lennon (Anangu), Murray George (Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY)), Michael Anderson (Euahlayi), Arnie Frank (Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY)), Fred Hooper (Murrawarri).