About 50 people attended a forum addressed by Michael Anderson at the Curtin University Aboriginal Studies Centre on March 5. Anderson is a Gamilaroi man from New South Wales and is one of the four original founders of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra in 1972.

The forum was organised by the Nyoongar Tent Embassy. Two days before, Anderson had addressed the WA Tent Embassy.

He said Aboriginal people had never given up their sovereignty, that there had never been a defeat in a declared war, that Aboriginal land had not been ceded and that the British crown had not asserted sovereignty over Aboriginal people.

He gave illustrations from case law, including letters and legislation from colonial times, to show that Aboriginal people were not British subjects and were they considered such. He described recent legal efforts to examine whether Australian courts have jurisdiction over Aboriginal people.

Anderson invited Aboriginal people of WA to take part in the formation of an interim Aboriginal government of national unity. So far, the interim government includes representatives of more than 40 Aboriginal nations from eastern Australia.

He described plans to have Aboriginal people recognised as a non-self-governing people by the United Nations. He also spoke of several legal initiatives, including a “writ of Mandamus” to get the British parliament to protect Aboriginal sovereignty, genocide proceedings against Britain in the European Union, and compensation and restitution claims for Aboriginal people with respect to mineral and petroleum exploitation.