I'ts Time for a Progressive NO Vote from the Grassroots People

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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 issues a GRASSROOOTS CALLOUT for people to gather outside British High Commission in Canberra NB: DATE DELAYED due to CONFLICTING COURT CASE TIMING" to demonstrate the progressive No Vote in opposition to the proposed Voice to parliament and inclusion of First Nations in the Constitution.

Many of the younger generations may not be aware of the slogan: ‘It’s time!’. That was a time of intended significant changes in Australia’s political history and for those of us who are old enough to remember it was the slogan that brought the late Gough Whitlam, former PM, to power. Ironically, with the crowning of the new king about to take place, the Palace Letters recently released after a protracted court battle, prove that the new king was more than a tacit bystander and approved in writing of Whitlam’s sacking by the Governor-General. But that’s not what this story is about.

This story and action is about the absolute shutting down of the First Nations grassroots’ leadership from having an opportunity to give their reasons why they oppose this proposed façade for constitutional alteration in order to have a puppet organisation put in place via a Voice to parliament. The information to date says that the corrupt hierarchical leadership at the Commonwealth level are agreeing to deny that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples to have open and free elections, for those who they would like to represent them at a national level. It appears that democracy does not apply to First Nations by this denial. Moreover, the current proposal gives the head of power to whoever the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs will be. What is even worse is that governments are spending millions of dollars of tax-payers’ money to support a dictatorship, where the advice given has been publicly espoused by the government itself, that they don’t have to adhere to any of the advice from the nominated few in the Voice.

I will leave the rest for you to think about that.

The media and the politicians are banning and avoiding open and public debate. People such as Megan Davis, Pat Anderson, Marcia Langton, Tom Calma, Noel Pearson, Thomas Meyer know that there are First Nations Peoples who can articulate very well why a progressive ‘NO VOTE’ should be carried. As banners stated on 26 January 2023 “We deserve more than a Voice.”

Or, in the alternative, this whole charade should be scrapped and be replaced with something much more even and tangible where First Nations Peoples design our own pathway forward to achieve self-determination, reparations, repatriation of stolen goods, and an end to oppressive incarceration and abduction of our children. We are all sick and tired of being ‘managed’ and told we are ‘disadvantaged’.

So, people, I now put a CALLOUT to all those who want to be heard. Let’s make Canberra, the rest of Australia and the world, know what our views really are.

If you truly are committed to fighting for the right to be self-determining; the right to maintain our political and spiritual sovereignty and to complete the Land Rights movement, then I call on you all to come to Canberra for Wednesday 31 May 2023.

We need you to get to Canberra on 31st May for a “GRASSROOTS VOTE NO” march and at the same time change the narrative to a vote for reparation, self-determination etc, which is a right of all free and independent Peoples.

Just to add cream to this decoration may I remind you – Australia has not brought into domestic law the UN Charter 1945 and is therefore not bound by its terms, just like Russia.

Australia has constantly banned international scrutiny of human rights abuses against our Peoples, e.g. Special Rapporteur, Gay McDougall, US Attorney, and the Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). Australia refused the human rights call to rescind John Howards’ racist Ten Point Plan that amended the Native Title Act 1993 which granted security and certainty to non-Aboriginal land-holders and discriminated against First Nations; in 2022 they banned international scrutiny of the prison system and places of detention by the Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture; continue to ignore 381 Deaths-in-Custody Report’s recommendations; they continue to constantly remove and abduct our children from their families with over 23000 in out-of-home care; and I can continue to extend this list.

In this regard the current Minister of Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, should be asked what did she do when she was NSW Minister for Community Services in the New South Wales Parliament to stop the children being forcibly removed from their families. The numbers of removals went up on her watch!

All of this window dressing has to stop: the lies; the deceit; the double-speak and the illusion of a right that the Voice will tell the parliament what we need, when it does not have to take notice. The federal parliament and/or executive government has no obligation to take notice of the advice. This must be brought to an end before they totally enculturate our educated young.

We don’t want to be a museum exhibition piece. We don’t want to have paid Elders to falsely welcome people to Country for a fee; and we don’t want to be showponies with a song and dance routine entertaining tourists, while our Countries are being desecrated. No, there is so much more to us as Peoples, who hold the oldest cultures on the planet.

If you thought the Aboriginal Embassy was the stand to bring it all to an end, this time let’s make this DATE DELAYED due to CONFLICTING COURT CASE TIMING the new beginning of the end.

Gather in front of British High Commission DATE DELAYED due to CONFLICTING COURT CASE TIMING.

When you come, you must be totally self-sufficient Old Way.

Ghillar, Michael Anderson
Convenor of Sovereign Union of First Nations and Peoples in Australia