- The First Word Sovereignty has given Julian Assange an aboriginal passport
- The passport was given as a show of support for his work with Wikileaks
- Assange’s father has criticized the Australian government for their lack of help
The last few months have been rather turbulent for embattled journalist Julian Assange as he was evicted from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London after 7 years following calls for his arrest. He is currently facing charges on both sexual assault as well as the leaking of classified documents relating to the United States as well as several extradition requests.However, some light at the end of the tunnel seems to be surfacing as it is being reported that Assange has received support from the First World Sovereignty in the form of an Aboriginal passport.
Assange receives passport from Aboriginal nations
According to the report, back in 2012, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was granted and an Aboriginal Nations passport while seeking political asylum at the Ecuadorian Embassy.
His need for asylum due to the 17 charges he is facing from the United States for the leak of classified documents through WikiLeaks and his lawyers have described a letter received from then attorney-general Nicola Ras a declaration of abandonment. However, Assange’s father, John Shipton, has stated that he had a new gesture of support.
The gesture support is a passport granted by the Indigenous Social Justice Association and was granted during a passport ceremony on the land of the Cadigal and Wangal people of Eora nation.
The Indigenous Social Justice Association has joined forces with the ‘support Assange’ movement and WikiLeaks Coalition and has stated that due to the lack of support by the Federal Government to assist Julian Assange for his informing of the world’s people of the lies told by government, they are granting him this passport while stating that his Australian passport has been completely worthless to him.
Julian’s father is thankful for the support
His father has spoken out, saying that this aboriginal passport is a sign of solidarity and one that he is very grateful for:
“Australian governments of every colour are happy to abandon their citizens when they’re in difficult situations overseas. Julian has always expressed the desire that the Aboriginal people of Australia be recognised as sovereign.”
However, the matter is not quite as straight-forward as one would imagine as the secretary of Aboriginal provision government Michael Mansell has explained that there two versions; the Aboriginal provisional government issues passports to only aboriginal people and the other, while bearing the Aboriginal symbol, is not the sort of passport one would use for domestic or international travel and that such, Julian Assange would not be eligible for the original aboriginal passport.