- In short: Aboriginal elder Jim Everett-puralia meenamatta was arrested in March for protesting against native logging in Tasmania. He says he won’t recognise the “colonial” courts.
- He bailed to appear on June 3, but a warrant was issued for his arrest on Monday after he failed to appear in the Hobart Magistrates Court.
- What’s next? Mr Everett says he expects to be arrested again, but he’ll have to be “pushed” into the court — where he intends to question its sovereignty over Aboriginal people.
The American inspired variety of sovereign citizen is enough, I don’t think we really need our own special version of the idea.
actually our indigenous peoples have rights and regional autonomy unlike you cunts
You’d enjoy the yidingi nation in Cairns then.
They have their own governed general, police, taxation department and more.
They have an immigration department, and you can even apply to be a citizen.
They are a nation, and are recognised as such by a fair chunk of overseas countries.
They literally were dual policing, in public, with the Queensland police, side by side, on naidoc week, and have their own vehicles, officers and more.
When you see that, and you see this guy from Tasmania, his claim doesn’t feel so far fetched anymore.
If he’s from the nation that traditionally owns the land being logged, and he protests on his own land, then from a human perspective I feel for him. From a legal perspective though, situations like the yidingi of the north will probably need to be tested first.
Which? Wikipedia says they’re “reaching out to countries like Russia and Venezuela to establish diplomatic relations”, but there’s nothing in there or on the cited article suggesting they received any response. Searching Google restricted to their official website for the words “recognise”, “acknowledge”, “embassy”, “relation”, and a few conjugations of those words all turned up zero results. They do seem to have had friendly discussions with federal ministers, but no formal recognition, and they don’t seem to be using their own vehicle registrations any more. (Side note: that last article is a particularly good one for getting a full broad picture of what it is they really want and the situations that lead to them being as they are today.)
Note: I am not attempting to make any kind of “ought” argument here. Merely an “is” one. And it does not seem true to claim that the Yidingi Nation “is” recognised in any official way, as far as I could find.
Sir facts and logic have no place in a lemmy comment thread
We already have our own nutso right-wing sovcitz. This isn’t much more extreme than Mabo was, prior to that case being decided.
You aren’t a sovcit if you’re part of the natives of the land before it was colonized
He’s the equivalent of native Americans not sov cits
Yeah, nah, this is different.
I hate the US Sov Cit loonies, but this guy is righteous.
Besides, fuck the logging companies that destroy native forests.