Sedition Sunday was a day in the park with friends. The park was the people's park, Eureka Park, Ballarat, at the Eureka Memorial on the 151st anniversary of the Eureka rebellion.

Marcus Neofitou of People for Civil Liberties, co-organiser of the inaugural Eureka151 Sedition Sunday, Eureka Park, 3 December 2005

A new event in the City of Ballarat Eureka commemoration, it attracted about 60 participants at any one time, and maybe 100 over the day, including two mini bus loads (16 each)courtesy the City of Yarra plus a 5 or 6 who came by rail from Melbourne for the day.

The crowd was remarkable for its mix of age, gender and race. It was a younger crowd that the Diggers' Walk, with more adolescents, and more 30 something year olds and their young children. Women speakers were prominent and feisty, and two local Aboriginals, a busload of Vietnamese plus a Ghanian who took the mike and acted as a BBC interviewer, added to the colour.

That part of Eureka Park between the old Memorial and the car park by the Hall was splendidly dressed with banners to create a focus. A single mike, battery operated PA with speakers mounted on the roof racks of Happy Wheels was used by the various speakers. A soap box was also provided.

Graeme Dunstan, the other co-organiser of the inaugural Eureka151 Sedition Sunday, cranks up the crowd in Eureka Park, 11 am 4 December 2005

As master of ceremonies I declared the occasion open mike; that is anyone could speak but no one could speak twice before anyone who so wanted had spoken once. We also had provision for a claxton to wind up the boring and an agreement to cheer on the interesting and draw more forth from them.

Between 11 am to 1 pm maybe twenty orators, poets and a few songsters took the mike and expressed seditious sentiments. provided.

Pope Fred takes the mike at the inaugural Eureka151 Sedition Sunday, Eureka Park, 3 December 2005

Only one was threatened with the claxton for singing (it sounded more like shouting) a song into the microphone that had many choruses of repeated obscenities - "Fuck car culture, fuck, fuck car culture etc.". On threat of the claxton he gave up on the choruses but shouted all the verses to the painful end.

The winner of the Sedition Competition was a local woman called Elvie who blew us all away with her Eureka passion. The runner up was a local stand up poet, Phil McNamara.

There was also a sing along of our national anthem rewritten: "Australians all cannot rejoice/No longer fair and free ..."

John Ireland (Children of Eureka) honoured us with an introductory speech; Cr Lynette Ashford, the recently elected mayor of a nearby rural shire got up and gave an impassioned plea for mateship and against self censorship.

Wild woman Rebecca speaks from the Eureka Memorial at the inaugural Eureka151 Sedition Sunday, Eureka Park, 3 December 2005

Late in the day a woman who I understand is associated with the Footscray based Connolley Society, set up a pignose amp up on the Memorial and harangued us for maybe 15 minutes. Some sort of archetypal Irish bane that the English colonizers must have learned to fear and loathe, she was a big woman, fierce and angry, and her red hair was blowing wild as she shouted condemnation into the mike.

The wind was blustering and it increased to such a strength that we had to take down the big banners. So wind blown and buffeted were we by the day's end that all of us, including this nomad and his dogs, were eager to quit the Park and seek shelter.

The day concluded with a meeting of maybe twenty people sitting in a circle on the lawn. With event co-producer Marcus Neofitou taking a leading role, the group exchanged contact details, agreed to meet regularly in Ballarat and to organise another Sedition Sunday for Eureka152 on Sunday 3 December 2006.

Many of the participating speakers came to me after to express gratitude for the event saying how good it was for them to speak and be heard in regard to their concerns about the Howard government's assault on our rights and liberties.

The signs are that Sedition Sunday is here to stay as a Eureka commemoration event.

In Eureka solidarity

Graeme Dunstan
5 December 2005

Banners in Eureka Park for Sedition Sunday, 3 December 2005

This was written as a report and emailed to members of the City of Ballarat Eureka Commemorations Committee. No response what so ever.

However Marcus Neofitou, the Sedition Sunday co-organiser who did most of the media work di respond by email dated 6 December. Here below is what he had to say.

Dear Graeme,

Thank-you so much for helping to inculcate me with the Eureka spirit and history. It was a whirilwind 2 days over the Eureka weekend but I felt very satisfied at the end.

I got some great footage with my camera and am determined to crank out a kick-ass documentary that will spread awareness of Eureka and it's meaning.

I believe that we achieved what we set out to do. The lead-in events in Ballarat helped generate some useful controversy and publicity. (I love the picture of Queen Victoria in the Courier) Sedition Sunday was a beautiful gathering of seditious souls. As you have mentioned, the diversity was amazing and there was something poetic about cooking a BBQ for mainly Asian immigrants.

I am very heartened that a core group of future Sedition Sunday! supporters has emerged. Mainly younger people (not all!), will meet (to be confirmed) at 7:00pm at Grainery Lane, Friday 6th January for our inaugural organising meeting which will be held monthly. If Grainery Lane is unsuitable, we may later meet at Ballarat Trades Hall. The main people will come from Ballarat and surrounding areas. I hope that you will be able to join us for one or more of these meetings in the future.

We agreed at the meeting that if we can crack the Ballarat nut, than we can spread Eureka spirit anywhere. I believe that the Eureka spirit has been suppressed by the establishment for many years in Ballarat. There are cracks forming and we can help to widen them until a vast flood engulfs Ballarat and ultimately the rest of Australia in a heady mixture of freedom and independence!

I make these observations after experiencing the conservatism of Ballarat officialdom firsthand. After seeing the Queen Victoria article in the Courier, I understand better, the aggression shown me by some councillors. These bureaucrats are relics of imperialdom. They talk of 'Eureka belonging to all but this is just shorthand for them wanting to neutralise any radical, anti-authoritarian connotations of the Eureka story. They would seek to twist and distort the basic ideals for which the diggers stood.

It is probably unrealistic to expect Ballarat Government officals to endorse real Seditious activity. Future radical actions based at Eureka will occur inspite of these people. Whilst I believe it is useful to reach-out to friendly, fellow Eureka organisers, I see no point in going out of our way in seeking acceptance by the Ballarat establishment. I believe that we do not share the same goals or values. Maybe one day a truce will form between these different factions and real healing can take place.

The massacre that took place at Eureka and the subsequent developments created a real rift in Ballarat. At the moment it seems that a scab has formed over a septic wound which need to be ripped off so the purifying qualities of the atmosphere can work it's magic.

I have come to appreciate the town of Ballarat. It does seem to me to be like a big movie set which has the set (Period buildings and Eureka), props (Eureka flags flying everywhere), extras (blank Ballarat locals) but not enough actual actors (real initiators of action).

The re-enactors seem to be mainly people playing superficial dress-ups with no real understanding of the heart of the Eureka story.

I enjoyed working with you. You have helped to teach me more about the importance of creativity in movement building. I like your ethos of "Doing the best we can with what we have!" You should be very proud of the Dawn Lantern March. It is a special event. You have now also become complicit in creating a dynamic, new event, Sedition Sunday!

Sedition Sunday! has alot of potential to galvanise radical spirit at Eureka. It can and will become a great platform for actual resistance to tyranny and in this way be a true way of honouring the defiance of the diggers and the sacrifice they made. I hope that it will inspire mass, non-violent civil disobedience to confront the war-mongering, freedom-suppressing actions of our Governments.

I noticed that Joe Toscano was warm and seemingly supportive of our efforts event building at Eureka. Stronger co-operation between radical Eureka activists is and will be a major breakthrough in attracting diversity and strength to the goal of Reclaiming the Radical Spirit of Eureka.

The major points to come out of our mini-monster meeting at Sedition Sunday! were: