An Indigenous Activist Was Arrested Under the Australian Laws he’s Renounced

Yesterday, Murrumu Walubara Yidindji was released from custody after being held for three nights by the Australian Capital Territory Corrective Services. Murrumu was arrested on trespassing charges on Friday by the Australia Federal Police for refusing to leave a public housing property in Kambah, a suburb of Canberra.

Murrumu was formerly known as Jeremy Geia, a press gallery journalist in Canberra for National Indigenous Television. In April last year, Murrumu decided to leave Australia. He renounced his citizenship, returning his driver's licence to the state government and passport to the federal. He then reverted to the tribal law of his people, the Yidindji.

However, Murrumu never actually left the continent, but rather returned to the ancestral lands of the Yidindji tribal nation, which is situated in northern Queensland, covering the region surrounding and including Cairns.

Murrumu was occupying a building at the site when arrested. He'd been setting up a Yidindji embassy for about a week, with the objective of establishing formal diplomatic relations with Australia and other nations.

The AFP said that Murrumu had failed to abide by an eviction notice served by ACT Community Services last Wednesday, ordering all persons to vacate the property. However, Murrumu had declared he did not recognise the laws of the territory.

Gaan-Yarra Yalnda, member of the Yidindji tribal nation, pointed out that Murrumu was actually occupying land belonging to the Guumaal Ngambri people, who the Yidindji had entered into a treaty with in October last year.

Over the last year, the Yidindji tribal nation has begun producing their own driver's licences, licence plates and identity documents, and they're looking to establish their own currency and passports.

Gaan-Yarra said the Yidindji are not the only ones making their nationhood claims; the Federal Court of Australia has also recognised their sovereignty. On December 14, 2012, Justice Dowsett when handing down a determination on a native title claim declared: "I have not come here today to give anything to the Tableland Yidinji people… I have come to acknowledge to them, and before all other people that all Australians recognize and accept them as the traditional owners of the claim area."

"The Commonwealth Constitution Act 1901 is the foundational legal document that creates the Commonwealth of Australia," Gaan-Yarra said. "Certain groups of people were not allowed to take part in the original federation of Australia. They were excluded. They threw the black fellas out."

"If the constitution is the foundational legal document that creates all the laws and if we've been excluded, how do the laws apply to us?"

It's due to this exclusion that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Recognition Act 2013 was passed, which has led to the establishment of the Recognise campaign and the proposal for a 2017 referendum to decide whether to include indigenous Australians in the constitution.

But according to Gaan-Yarra there are more disquieting reasons behind the constitutional recognition movement. "That's why they're pushing so hard to get constitutional recognition of the black people, so they can be subject to all of the laws created underneath the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act," he said.

What Murrumu and the Yidindji tribal nation are pushing for is to get the Australian government to the negotiating table to establish a treaty between both parties.

Murrumu was released with unconditional bail and is set to go before court again in February.

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Image via Flickr user Nicola Jones