<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/03/indigenous-australian-native-title-claim-sovereign-citizen-conspiracies>
"Indigenous Australians are backing out of participating in native title claims
after being targeted by proponents of a racist conspiracy theory exported from
the US, according to new research.
Senior anthropologist Pascale Taplin is the lead author of a new paper warning
sovereign citizen conspiracists are exploiting the concept of Indigenous
sovereignty to target Aboriginal communities, disrupting native title claims in
the process.
Taplin, who has worked as a native title practitioner for several Aboriginal
land councils, says people are being targeted online and in person with
messages saying native title is “slave’s title” or “you’re actually signing the
land away”.
She said she has attended native title meetings “where non-Aboriginal people
have attended and invited people to come to separate meetings afterward. And
it’s about these sovereign citizen superconspiracies”.
“My fear is that some people will be exposed to this rhetoric and then not
actively pursue recognition of their pre-existing rights and interests,” she
said.
Originally developed by American white supremacists, sovereign citizen ideology
posits that the government is a corporation and individuals retain “sovereign”
rights to disobey any law. Proponents also often wrongly believe the government
has been taken over by a grand conspiracy typically made up of paedophiles,
Jews or some other minority group.
It’s very different from the Indigenous spiritual concept of sovereignty,
according to Aboriginal tent embassy founder and Euahlayi elder Ghillar Michael
Anderson.
Anderson, a professor at the University of Southern Queensland, who also runs
Sovereign Union - First Nations Asserting Sovereignty, said sovereign citizens
are as disrespectful of traditional Indigenous lore as they are of the law.
Under Indigenous practice, he said, communities as a whole have rights and
responsibilities over their country, with specific knowledge holders granted
influence within that group.
“That’s an exercise of sovereignty by an individual, but it’s one of a
spiritual kind. It belongs to the sacred realm of the Aboriginal people,” he
said."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
