ICFI Collaboration with Indigenous Australians
We are excited to be forming an association with the Australian based, Indigenous Friends of Israel, headed by Norman and Barbara Miller.
Munganbana Norman is from the Jirrbal, Bar-Barrum and Tableland Yidinji tribes, in the Cairns region, one of the higher population areas for Indigenous people in Australia. Norman has been an activist for the rights of the First Nations people for many years. He began a Boomerang Petition seeking to address discrimination against the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes in the Australian Constitution. He is now involved with Voice Treaty Truth, a movement seeking constitutional reforms to empower Indigenous Australians and the establishment of a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution.
Barbara Miller has also been involved in the plight of Indigenous Australians for decades. As a young activist she was involved in the Aboriginal Tent Embassy demonstrations in Canberra in 1972. After the Queensland government forcibly removed the Mapoon people to make way for mining in 1963, Barbara became involved in the movement to repatriate the Mapoon people back to their land. She co-founded the North Queensland Land Council 1977 and was CEO of the Aboriginal Co-ordinating Council (ACC) in the 1990s.
Barbara has written many books about her experience, including ‘White Woman, Black heart’. This title came from a conversation with Aboriginal elder Burnun Burnum who said, “You may be white but you have a black heart, as you understand my people and feel our heart.’
The Indigenous Friends of Israel was established in 2017, partly in response to the stance of Labour Party member Bob Carr who was lobbying for the endorsement of a Palestinian state, while Palestinian leaders were not willing to accept the right of Israel to exist, but were supporting terrorism. Since that time Norman and Barbara have spoken out on behalf of Israel on many occasions, recognising that ‘“It is fitting that an Indigenous voice be heard…because the Jewish people are the Indigenous people of Israel, contrary to some opinions.”
Norman and Barbara have been involved with Israel for over thirty years. They have lead many tour groups to Israel. In 2010 they took an ANZAC/Lighthorse team of fourteen Australians and seven New Zealanders to Israel to visit the battle scenes of World Wars I and II. It was timed for the anniversary of the battle at Be’er-Sheva, 31 October, a significant battle in the Palestine Campaign, which opened the gateway to Jerusalem and heralded the end of four hundred years of the Ottoman Empire rule over Jerusalem.
The Millers took the tour group to Rishon Le Zion, near Ayun Kara, where New Zealand, in World War I, though greatly outnumbered, achieved a great victory. The group also laid wreaths at the newly completed statue to the New Zealand Mounted Rifles at Ben Gurion School in Ness Ziona. Norman and Barbara then facilitated an apology for the revenge killings of Bedouins in Surafend and left a letter of apology to be deposited into the city archives of Rishon Le Zion.
Later that year the Barbara and Norman attended a ceremony at Yad Vashem, held to honour Australian Aboriginal William Cooper. He is recognized as leading one of the few private protests worldwide against Kristallnacht in 1938, which is all the more remarkable because he and his group were not citizens in their own land at the time.
The Millers are committed to standing with Israel, as Indigenous peoples who recognise the indigeneity of the Jews. In their most recent press release, they stated
There are lies being circulated about the state of Israel. One of these is that Israel is a colonial settler state settled by Jews from Europe. There has been a Jewish presence in the land for about 4,000 years with King David taking the throne of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah about 3,000 years ago.
Since the state of Israel was reformed in 1948 as the modern state of Israel, there has been migration of Jews from Europe, Africa, Asia, the US etc. who have joined local Jews. There has always been a Jewish presence in the land since the days of Abraham despite attempts by various foreign powers to remove them from the land.
The Jews are Indigenous to the land of Israel. Judea was renamed Syria Palaestina (later called Palestine) by the Romans in 135 AD to eradicate the Jewishness of its name after a Jewish revolt. The Arabs conquered and colonialized Jerusalem in the relatively recent time of 636-637 AD.
The Indigenous Coalition for Israel fully supports their stance and we look forward to working together as Indigenous peoples in addressing misunderstandings and misinformation regarding Israel and standing in solidarity with the Jewish state and the Jewish people.
