Asserting Australia’s First Nations Sovereignty into Governance
OPEN LETTER to King Charles III. 18 October 2023 To King Charles III:
I wish to remind you of one of your predecessor’s commitment to correcting the colonial wrongdoings of the British, when King George IV committed Great Britain to atone for ‘the evil association
which we have inflicted’ and crimes perpetrate against our First Nations Peoples.
The necessity for justice through reparation for the ‘Native Inhabitants’ was confirmed by King George IV’s Instructions in 1825, as recorded in the introduction to the Report of the Parliamentary
Select Committee on Aboriginal Tribes (British Settlements), which was ‘appointed to consider what Measures ought to be adopted with regard to the NATIVE INHABITANTS of the Colonies where BRITISH SETTLEMENTS are made, and to the neighbouring Tribes, in order to secure to them the due observance of Justice, and the protection of their Rights’:
The case of these people has not been wholly overlooked at home. In 1825 His Majesty [George IV] issued instructions to the Governor to the effect that they should be protected in the enjoyment of their possessions, preserved from violence and injustice, … we must still express our conviction that if we are ever able to make atonement to the remnant of this people, it will require no slight attention, and no ordinary sacrifices on our part to compensate the evil association which we have inflicted; but even hopelessness of making reparation for what is past would not in any way lessen our obligation to stop, as far as in us lies, the continuance of iniquity.1
‘No slight attention’ is required as the truth-telling movement gains traction and Britain and Australia must face up to ‘the no ordinary sacrifices on our part to compensate the evil association which we have inflicted’. The opportunities are coalescing to dispel any ‘hopelessness of making reparation’ as the Crown is well resourced from the proceeds of crime, and must use the stolen wealth to reverse the ‘iniquity’.
I also take this opportunity to inform you that I met with David Hurley at Government House, Sydney, when he was Governor of New South Wales and I informed him that my People could never contemplate any reconciliation offers from the parliaments of Australia, and/or any similar offers at the behest of your appointed governors, while ever our ancestors’ bones remain on open ground, trodden and crushed by imported cattle and sheep. Our deceased ancestors are unburied where they were killed by the squatters’ murderous acts; and where our people have been killed en masse by military troopers; and where they lie at waterholes where the water had been poisoned.
Let me give you an example of the hypocrisies that continue to be perpetrated against us. In 1995, the then Prime Minister Paul Keating introduced a bill into the Australian parliament to legislate for an act to separate and compensate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples for the loss of their lands. My People, the Ghurrie clan of the Euahlayi Nation, had lands returned to us under the Indigenous Land Corporation (ILC), now known as Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation (ILSC). But, as recently as February of this year the New South Wales Supreme Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the primary judgement that, despite some of our lands Mogila Station (NSW) and Currawiillinghi (Qld.) being acquired for the purpose of redress for dispossession, the court held that the lands under that same act, could be returned to the ILSC under sections 191S and 191T. So much for Australia’s effort to compensate for dispossession.
In addition, you need to be aware that all lands and assets acquired by government agencies for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples are on loan only. Underlying this is Australia’s ability to apply the feudal system that once existed in England until 1660. It is also important to note that not only do the governments have a feudal system operating within this country, they have a legal system that underpins the modern day feudalism, through contracts of escheat.
These acts of trickery and deceit are well disguised and the Australian Commonwealth Government successfully conceals the truth from the public. Lawyers have difficulty in analysing the legislation, let alone expecting that First Nations Peoples can understand the source and extent of these evil wrongdoings that are constantly being perpetrated against us.
I can inform you that this is all done in right of the Crown, in your name. What has been said above can be affirmed by looking at the Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2002 (CATSI Act) and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Act 2005 (ATSI Act) in that nothing can be owned outright by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. The term “Indigenous Estate” is a doctrine that has been applied to material matters, such as houses and land, for the use of First Nations Peoples. I am well aware of how the Commonwealth government of Australia sells a lie to the public and other international Human Rights bodies when they allege that land and other property are owned by First Nations Peoples through their corporate structures. This is not so. When you look beneath the covers the corporations may hold the assets in their name, including land tenures, but the Deeds of Grant and/or Bills of Sale have caveats, including agreements by way of contracts that land and assets are owned by the government through bare legal trusts.
I do hope that this correspondence will encourage you to speak directly to grassroots people about their continuing plights. People like myself and other grassroots and community leaders will never have the freedom to speak directly to you, because the colonial governments of Australia have perfected a way of ensuring that people of significance, such as yourself, are kept as far away from the truth as is possible.
My appeal to you is for you to enter into dialogue with our First Nations. Those who represent you and exercise your prerogative as a ‘Minister of the Crown’ are taught very well how to be deceitful with the ability to doublespeak.
You, as the sovereign, hold sovereign persuasion over the governments of this country. You and your predecessors acquired this continent illegally and without payment.
I, on the other hand, on behalf of my Ghurrie clan of the Euahlayi Nation will give to you a handful of beads and a blanket in return for my clan’s lands.
Sincerely,
We reserve our right.
Ghillar, Michael Anderson, Professor of Astronomy,
******************* END *******************
1 Report of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Aborigines (British Settlements) with the Minutes of Evidence, Appendix and Index. Ordered, by The House of Commons, to be Printed, 26 June 1837. Imperial Blue Book, 1837 nr VII. 425, p.11.
