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Aboriginal fire ceremony on Dover's beach

3 September 2001 - European Network for Indigenous Australian Rights (ENIAR) - Media Release - An Aboriginal fire ceremony, was performed yesterday on Dover's beach by a delegation from the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, Canberra.

Isabell Coe lighting the Sacred Fire for Peace and Justice on Dover beach, UK Building the fire. performing the ceremony Collecting ashes from the ceremonial fire.

Isabell Coe, leader of the delegation explained that the traditional fire ceremony was to "let the land know we are here.''

"It was", she explained, 'the custom when going through people's country, for safety, so people know we're here, and that we come in peace".

The fire was lit from locally grown eucalyptus and ashes from the 'sacred fire for peace and justice' that was lit at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, lawns of old Parliament House, Canberra in 1998, at The Corroboree for Sovereignty. The fire has been burning continuously since then.

At the close of the ceremony Isabell gathered ashes from the fire. These ashes will be included in further fire ceremonies.

The delegation, established a Tent Embassy in the Hague last week, as the first step towards establishing Aboriginal Sovereignty over their traditional lands.

The delegation also presented the British and Australian Embassies with a declaration of Aboriginal Sovereignty over the lands known as Australia; as well as declarations of Sovereignty and peace.

In a statement issued last week, Isabell Coe said ''We have been to the highest courts in Australia over genocide and our Sovereign land rights and there has been no justice. The courts of Australia have said that our Sovereignty can only be determined by the British Courts or the World Court."

On the 30th August the delegation visited the First Secretary of the International Court of Justice, in The Hague. "To raise the question of who can decide Aboriginal Sovereignty if the Australian High Courts cannot?"

They are now waiting for a reply from the registrar.

Email: tentembassy@hotmail.com

related links:

• Aboriginal Tent Embassy; The Hague Consulate Decleration 2001
  August 2001 - The Aboriginal Tent Embassy would like to inform you that a delegation led by Isabel Coe , with 'the sacred fire for peace and justice", will be going to the Hague, the Netherlands, to establish a consulate on neutral diplomatic ground. The purpose is to lobby the Crown and the Queen of England on the issue that the Aboriginal people who belong to the land known as Australia, never ceded their sovereign rights to the land known as Australia.
• Flame of reconciliation ends its trek to Sydney
  4 September 2000 - The Olympic torch is not the only flame that has traversed New South Wales. The alternative flame is a humble glow - it was not accompanied by a convoy of shiny vehicles, you can't buy it, and famous people are not queueing to run with it.It's a small flame, flickering on a piece of old wood cradled to the chest of Kevin "Uncle Kev" Buzzacott, a South Australian Arabunna elder.
• Flame of Freedom burns in Victoria Park
  23 August 2000 - The last time an Aboriginal campfire burned in Victoria Park could well have been more than 200 years ago. The Gadigal tribe of the Eora people, traditional Aboriginal inhabitants of the area now known as Sydney's inner west, are known to have used the park as a meeting place long before European settlement. The fire then would have been for utility and warmth as well as a place to gather in tribal community.
• Aboriginal Tent Embassy; The Hague Consulate Decleration 2001
  August 2001 - The Aboriginal Tent Embassy would like to inform you that a delegation led by Isabel Coe , with 'the sacred fire for peace and justice", will be going to the Hague, the Netherlands, to establish a consulate on neutral diplomatic ground. The purpose is to lobby the Crown and the Queen of England on the issue that the Aboriginal people who belong to the land known as Australia, never ceded their sovereign rights to the land known as Australia.

Further information: British responsibility issues page - includes news index and external links

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