Palawa Elder Jim Everett puralia meenamatta has been convicted of one charge of trespass and faces a second for protesting against logging in native forests in Lutruwita (Tasmania).
Mr Everett, who did not attend court yesterday, was fined $500 plus court costs for protecting native forests from logging in March 2024.
A further charge of trespass, for when he was arrested on his 82nd birthday, was adjourned to April 8 because the prosecutor was unprepared.
“The colonial court has no jurisdiction over Palawa or Palawa Law in Country," Mr Everett said.
“Protecting Law in Country is an issue for all First Nations people.
"I most certainly won’t be paying the fine, I treat it with contempt, it’s an aggressive colonial claim over Aboriginal people that has to stop."
Tasmanian Aboriginal community member Ruth Langford (Yorta Yorta and Dja Dja Wurrung) was also arrested last week for protecting forests in Lutruwita and bailed to face trespass charges on May 5.
Ms Langford said it was a travesty that the court chose to convict a Palawa man for protecting Palawa Country.
"Those precious waterways that he was standing up for, those pretty, cool habitats for endangered species, the very life-giving essence that he is responding to his cultural obligation, they chose to walk over that," she said.
"Not only did they convict him, they rubbed salt in the wound by fining him.
"I spoke to Uncle Jim right after we left the court and told him what had happened and he laughed.
"He continues to assert that the colonial courts have no jurisdiction over him and that he will do everything in his power to protect the very things that give us life and to assert himself as an Aboriginal man, a Palawa man, on Palawa Country."
Pakana man Cody Gangell said it was laughable that anyone felt they had jurisdiction to tell Uncle Jim that he couldn't walk on his own land, in defence of his own homelands.
We aren't going to go away and just sit back and watch while they bulldoze, clear fell and fire bomb our precious lands.
"It's just unfathomable that somehow the court of this country thinks that they can tell Uncle Jim, our Elder, that Palawa Law has no place on Palawa land," he said.
"With our community, our people and our Elders asserting the rights of the Palawa people as the sovereign people of these lands and our right to stand on, walk over and protect our own Country from the greed and devastation caused by these exploitative, extractive processes, I think it sets a precedent for us to show that we do have the power to stand up and make change.
"And that we aren't going to go away and just sit back and watch while they bulldoze, clear fell and fire bomb our precious lands."
Uncle Jim 'a national hero'
Former Greens leader Bob Brown said Tasmania's logging corporations are a national disgrace.
"Jim Everett is now a national hero," he said.
"And the more they pursue him in the courts, the more the public is going to be on his side and against them for robbing the public of the millions of dollars compensation they get for destroying the forest and robbing the public of its heritage, in particular the Palawa people's heritage.
"And this idea that Palawa people like Jim Everett should be locked up for defending Country while the subsidised logging corporations take people's money and go to the bank is right out of place in a modern, advanced democracy like Tasmania."
Dr Brown pointed out that Tasmania's economy depends on people coming to see beautiful, pristine landscapes and forests.
"And that's what's being destroyed," he said.
"It doesn't make any sense economically, environmentally or socially.
"Here's one Elder, Jim Everett ... who's made a stand ... and all they're doing is giving him a louder voice each time they take him to court."
