Ghillar Michael Anderson (born 1951), or Michael Ghillar Anderson, is a

Euahlayi The Yuwaalaraay, also spelt Euahlayi, Euayelai, Eualeyai, Ualarai, Yuwaaliyaay and Yuwallarai, are an Aboriginal Australian people of north-western New South Wales. Name and language The ethnonym derives from their word for "no" () to which ...

Elder and activist from

Goodooga Goodooga is a town in the Australian state of New South Wales in Brewarrina Shire on the eastern bank of the Bokhara River. It is near Brewarrina and Lightning Ridge, its closest neighbour. The town lies south of the Queensland border, and the ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, in Australia. In 1972 he was one of the four men who set up the

Aboriginal Tent Embassy The Aboriginal Tent Embassy is a permanent protest occupation site as a focus for representing the political rights of Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander people. Established on 26 January (Australia Day) 1972, and celebrating ...

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

, as a protest in the struggle for the recognition of

Indigenous land rights in Australia In Australia, Indigenous land rights or Aboriginal land rights are the rights and interests in land of Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander people; the term may also include the struggle for those rights. Connection to the land and ...

, eventually becoming its High Commissioner. As a participant in the Australian Aboriginal Astronomy Project, Anderson has collaborated with academic astronomers Robert Fuller and Duane Hamacher in sharing and documenting traditional star knowledge. He has been pivotal in researching the

Emu in the sky Australian Aboriginal astronomy has been passed down orally, through ceremonies, and in their artwork of many kinds. The astronomical systems passed down thus show a depth of understanding of the movement of celestial objects which allowed them ...

astronomical interpretation, that recognises the space between the stars in the

Milky Way The Milky Way or Milky Way Galaxy is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the #Appearance, galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars in other arms of the galax ...

as containing ancestral figures, the inspiration for the title of Bruce Pascoe's ''

Dark Emu ''Dark Emu: Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident?'' is a 2014 non-fiction book by Bruce Pascoe. It re-examines colonial accounts of Aboriginal people in Australia, and cites evidence of pre-colonial agriculture, engineering and building cons ...

''. Anderson was featured in a documentary film about Aboriginal Australian astronomy, which was widely shown, including in schools. Anderson has sat on a UN Committee in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

addressing the repatriation of cultural material. In 2013, Anderson with other leaders, proclaimed a republic in

Dirranbandi, Queensland Dirranbandi is a rural town and Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Shire of Balonne, Queensland, Australia. The locality is on the border of Queensland with New South Wales. In the , the locality of Dirranbandi had a population ...

. He was elected his nation's head of state and informed

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

Awards and honours

In June 2021 Asteroid 10040 Ghillar was named in honour of Anderson by the IAU.WGSBN Bull. 1,3
Working Group for Small Bodies Nomenclature, 16 June 2021. Retrieved 6 July 2021. The

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...

was discovered by Czech astronomer

Zdeňka Vávrová Zdeňka Vávrová (born 1945) is a Czech astronomer. She co-discovered periodic comet 134P/Kowal-Vávrová. She had observed it as an asteroid, which received the provisional designation 1983 JG, without seeing any cometary coma. However, lat ...

at the

Kleť Observatory Kleť Observatory (; obs. code: 046) is an astronomical observatory in the Czech Republic. It is situated in South Bohemia, south of the summit of Mount Kleť, near the town of České Budějovice. Constructed in 1957, the observatory is at an ...

in 1984. The citation reads as follows:

References

External links

Ghillar Michael Anderson, family, and supporters gathering at the National Film and Sound Archive to begin the march on the 50th anniversary of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, 26 January
(photo)
Ghillar Michael Anderson and his family walking the original route of the march 50 years before from the National Film and Sound Archive down Commonwealth Avenue Bridge to the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, 26 January
(photo) {{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Ghillar Michael Living people 1951 births Australian Aboriginal elders People from the Orana (New South Wales)