Apologies to the globally dispersed readers on the list.
If you can't attend due to distance or otherwise, but know of
similar events or actions (past or present) please let us know -
we're looking to explore the diverse debates around indigenous
sovereignty around the world, and in particular, the tensions
inherent in the use of the passport as a symbol to disrupt colonial
sovereignties.
Thanks, Katie
Contesting Colonial Sovereignty:
A seminar to discuss the Aboriginal Passport Ceremony
2pm, 22nd September 2012
Tin Sheds Gallery
148 City Rd, University of Sydney
On 15 September 2012 a Welcome to Aboriginal Land Passport Ceremony
will be held in Redfern (http://aboriginalpassportceremony.org/).
Over 200 people, including newly arrived asylum seekers, will be
issued with an Aboriginal Passport by Ray Jackson, President of the
Indigenous Social Justice Association. The ceremony itself is an
important and powerful disruption of settler colonialism and its
assumptions of national sovereignty. It recognizes, furthermore,
that indigenous sovereignty was never ceded. At the same time, the
ceremony undermines the authority of state-issued passports as
documents that finally determine questions of inclusion and
exclusion. As the Ceremony organisers write, “the issuing of the
Passports covers two important areas of interactions between the
Traditional Owners of the Lands and migrants, asylum seekers and
non-Aboriginal citizens of this country. Whilst they acknowledge our
rights to all the Aboriginal Nations of Australia we reciprocate by
welcoming them into our Nations. It is a moral win-win for all
involved in the process”.
This Seminar, one week after the event, will consider a range of
issues raised by the ceremony, including the politics of
sovereignty; whether a singular indigenous sovereignty is possible;
as well as what alternative sovereignties might look like. The
seminar will be chaired by Eve Vincent and will involve the
following speakers:
- Ray Jackson, President of the Indigenous Social Justice
Association and long term activist who has been deeply involved in
social movements for many years - from the Union movement through to
deaths in custody and policing issues.
- Maria Giannacopolous, a lecturer in Socio-legal Studies and
Criminal Justice at Flinders University. Her interdisciplinary
research focuses on the relations between law, justice and
sovereignty with a specific emphasis on racialised communities
(Indigenous peoples, refugees and migrants) in Australia.
- Darren Parker, a Ngunnawal man, a graduate of University of
Melbourne and currently a PhD student at the same university. On
completion of this qualification he will be the first Aboriginal PhD
graduate from Melbourne Law School. Darren has an interest in
commercial law and in particular the social impact of law within our
community and on the indigenous population in particular.
This seminar is the third in the cross-border collective’s monthly
series of seminars on the theme of Politics, Colonialism, Borders.
These seminars aim to bring together activists and academics to
examine local and international movements and debates in order to
develop a counter-politics of the border. In our view, any such
political movement must confront and resist Australia’s colonial
history and the ongoing dispossession of indigenous peoples. If you
would like to get involved in future seminars, please email Katie
Hepworth ([log in to unmask]) or Richard Bailey ([log in to unmask]).
The CBC is a Sydney based group that has been working on projects
around race, the border, migration and the state for around two
years. In the past, the Cross Border Collective has organised
conferences, events, forums, protest and direct action. For more
information see: crossbordersydney.org
The seminar is being held as part of the Crisis Complex exhibition
at the Tin Sheds Gallery, with the support of Transforming Cultures,
UTS (http://www.tfc.uts.edu.au/).
Doors will open at 1:30 for a 2pm start.
