Grassroots Fundraiser for Treaty Before Voice

Hey everyone,

This is the Brisbane Aboriginal Sovereign Embassy starting a Community Campaign and we're calling for support from the community to run it.

From Invasion Day Rallies to grassroots meetings at Musgrave Park, First Nations communities have made ourselves clear that we deserve more than Constitutional Recognition and a 'Voice' as a government advisory board.

From this year's Official Statement from Invasion Day Rally Melbourne: Treaty Before Voice,

We demand:

In the next few weeks and months, we're making sure the grassroots are heard. We're really building up the visibility and resources from the grassroots. We're bringing communities together in education and with resources, we're holding workshops for t-shirt screen printing and banner making, hosting forums across different cities, mobilising communities and connecting up the Sovereign Aboriginal Embassies across nations. Ultimately we are making sure that Sovereignty is centred and to Stop the War.

The Colony has never stopped since invasion and First Nations Peoples of these lands are the ones that are affected the most. Why is it that 25 million non-Indigenous Australian voters get to vote on and have a say on the futures of 812,000 Indigenous People? How is that self-determination and sovereignty?

We deserve more than settlers voting on constitutional recognition or a government advisory board when they have not listened and are yet to change anything since the last referendum. Most statistics in terms of violence, deaths in custody and theft of children, and destruction and extraction of our lands have gotten worse. There are written reports and demands for improvement but they have not been engaged with.

Why would a mining corporate-funded 'Voice' be trustable to improve First Nations' lives and lands? Wouldn't that just give voice and credibility for the Government to continue to speak over and extract from Indigenous People and Indigenous lands? No hand-selected governmental tokenistic voice will ever represent the range of First Nations opinions, experiences, views and strategies in the movement for Sovereignty.

In our community-run campaign, we're ambitious in our own creative and strategic goals in fostering clarity, understanding and community mobilising for Sovereignty and Treaty before Voice. The target for funds includes Regional, Interstate, and Remote communities, as well as International Legal and Journalist support.

Our Community Campain plans include:

(9+) Workshops

Western Australia, Darwin, Alice Springs, Cairns, South Australia - by flight ✈️

Naarm, Sydney, Rockhampton, Canberra - by bus

We're Bringing elders and grassroots organisers together, hosting forums, holding community screen printing and banner making, and sharing educational resources and pamphlets. We want to ensure enough funds for safe travels and accommodations for the community and we're looking into buying a second-hand bus that we will travel in and paint - Treaty Before Voice.

The Workshop Materials

1000 T-shirts per workshop, Silk Screens, Squeegees, Fabric Ink, Big canvases, Paints

We've already begun with a series of screen printing and banner-making days in Meanjin (Brisbane) which you can see on our instagram.

Educational Materials

We're creating and publishing a historical photo/image book of the Frontier Wars under Stop The War.

This will be a book that can be distributed to communities, especially where politicians and people are in denial of a war/slavery/the history of this colonial nation and its continual racial violence.

We also want to create sharable powerpoints, pamphlets, zines, and creative posters - with the intention of working with local creatives and First Nations visual artists.

Forums, Panels and Events

We want to host forums and talks in key communities with First Nations organisers, academics, and grassroots political activists. We are also interested to link up with First Nations artists, poets, and musicians. Involving the youth, the local community and the arts in our politics is important to involve and bring together people in building up the collective movement.

International Reach

From the grassroots, we're also reaching out to International Human Rights Lawyers and Journalists.

We intend to set aside approx. $10 - 20,000 for an International focus team with International Human Rights Lawyers to point out the inequity in terms of the participation of 25 million settlers voting on another race's future, the racism in that power dynamic and how it impacts First Nations Peoples the most. We're looking into presenting and filing a human rights case at the ICC - International Criminal Court seated at The Hague, Netherlands.

But what is a treaty? What is sovereignty? What does Treaty Before Voice mean? What is inequitable about the Referendum?

If you are still confused or wanna learn more, we invite you to our weekly meetings by the fire at Musgrave Park, Meanjin at 5 pm. Come along and have a yarn, and hear what we’ve got to say. Come sit with the grassroots and hear our voices.

We hope to see you there in support or at any one of our upcoming meetings, workshops, forums or community events. If you've got ideas, please get in touch with us with how you'd like to offer support or involvement.

We appreciate any contributions towards this campaign and movement. We need settlers to acknowledge the continual benefit and opportunity to live their livelihoods whilst on stolen land and to pay the rent in the amount that they can. We need your help in this campaign, especially since the government's Uluru Statement of The Heart and The Voice - receives millions in funding and we urge you to take a look at which big corporates and mining companies are the funders.

Grassroots communities are out here doing the work by hand, making screens, painting banners, educating, working and sharing the load, trying to look out for each other and protect lands whilst also processing continual effects and traumas inflicted by the Colony. Non-Indigenous settlers we need you to step up, show up with solidarity and support, and pay the rent in understanding the racial foundation and violence of this colony and the inherent racial violence via the referendum.

We're calling for change, justice, freedom, sovereignty, and self-determination,

to Stop the War, Treaty Before Voice.

From the grassroots,

Brisbane Aboriginal Sovereign Embassy

www.treatybeforevoice.com