Ghillar - The Sovereignty Scene Right Now 2022 - 01 - 28 BTL

This week on Behind the Lines we welcome back Ghillar (Michael Anderson), last survivng member of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy founding four. Ghillar is an Aboriginal rights activist, and leader of the Euahlayi tribe in north-western New South Wales and southern Queensland. He was a leader in the Australian Black Power movement and was appointed by his peers as the first Aboriginal ambassador to white Australia after he and three comrades established what was later called the Aboriginal Tent Embassy on the front lawns of Australia's parliament house in 1972. He is now Coordinator of the interim National Unity Government of the Sovereign Union. He was taught Euahlayi customs and traditions through his people's sacred ceremonies, and is a senior lawman. In 1979 he was appointed to the Office of the Public Prosecutions in criminal law as an instructing officer (the equivalent of a solicitor) in the state of New South Wales. Ghillar has lectured in Aboriginal studies and Aboriginal politics at several Australian universities, writing and teaching units in Aboriginal studies, and has also played professional Rugby League. He lives on and runs a sheep and cattle property on his ancestral lands on both sides of the New South Wales and Queensland border in the lower Ballone river system.