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Aboriginals visit Westminster

19 November 2001 - Aboriginal Tent Embassy - ENIAR Media Release - The Aboriginal Tent Embassy from Canberra Australia today met with members of Westminster Parliament to discuss the fact that the Aboriginals of Australia never ceded their sovereignty to the British when Australia was declared 'terra nullius' in 1770 by Lieutenant Cook.

Isabell Coe and supporters displaying the Aboriginal flag outside Westminster parliament, before their meeting with Jeremy Corbyn MP

The delegation which was led by Wiradjuri elder Isabell Coe , delivered declarations of sovereignty and declarations of peace to Mr. Jeremy Corbyn, a Labour M.P. and also a House of Commons Select Committee report from 1835 on the conditions of the natives in the British colonies.

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy believes the report which states that 'the natives have a incontrovertible right, a plain and sacred right to the land' and 'that the British parliament declared south Australia a new colony without once adverting to the natives', proves that the British parliament and the crown knew in 1835 that the occupation of Australia under the doctrine of terra nullius was illegal and that the natives of Australia were being systematically killed off for the benefit of Great Britain.

Isabell Coe said "we have been to the highest courts in Australia and each time we have been told that the issue of Aboriginal sovereignty in Australia can only be determined in England or the International Courts of Justice".

"According to the Australian High Court case of Mabo Vs the Commonwealth (1992) 'Aboriginal sovereignty can not be determined in a municipal court of Australia' therefore we are here to start the process that is needed to have Aboriginal sovereignty recognize by the British and international courts", Ms Coe said.

Grave stone of Yemmerrawanyea, who, along with Benelong, were brought to England under the orders of Captain Phillip, only to pass away due to the effects of alcohol. He was burried in St John the Baptist church in Eltham, South East London.

"We will be seeking a review in the High Court of England over the legality of the claim and assertion of British sovereignty that was proclaimed by Lieutenant Cook in 1770".

"In the International Courts of Justice we will be using the optional protocol of advisory opinion to the United Nations to have the case heard."

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy has been in Europe for three months on a fact finding mission, to attain founding documents that are not available in Australia which prove the claim of sovereignty over Australia was in fact illegal.

"We have asked the Australian courts to produce the documents that they are sovereign owners of Australia, now we want to ask the British the same question".

Isabell Coe lighting the Sacred Fire for Peace and Justice on the docks of Deptford — at the place where Lieutenent Cook and the Endeavor embarked from on their voyage to Australia in the late 1760s. click image for full size (images may take some time to download) Delegation performing fire ceremony on Dover beach.

"The Aboriginal Tent Embassy has been campaigning for the sovereign rights to the land to be recognize as Aboriginal since 1972 and it is about time our claims are heard by the international community, Australia is the only country in the world where the indigenous people of the land are not recognize as the first people of the land, we are refugees in our own country ".

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy can be contacted at t:TentEmbassy@Hotmail.com

related links:

• 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.
• Aboriginal fire ceremony on Dover's beach
  3 September 2001 - An Aboriginal fire ceremony , was performed yesterday on Dover's beach by a delegation from the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, Canberra. Isabell Coe, Leader of the delegation explained that the traditional fire ceremony was to "let the land know we are here.''
• 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 responsibilityissues page - includes news index and external links

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