Micronation Conference: Sydney, 17 April 2010

[George]

I'm delighted to announce that the world's first serious academic conference on the subject of micronations will take place in Sydney on 17 April 2010.

The 1-day conference is being convened by Dr Judy Lattas, and funded by Macquarie University. It will take place on beautiful Dangar Island, in the Hawkesbury River, just north of Sydney.

The conference is being held to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Hutt River Principality, and with the concurrent visit to Australia of award-winning Austrian filmmaker, Paul Poet, whose 120-minute feature documentary about micronations - Empire Sabotage - New Worlds Are Happening - will include coverage of events. The film will be released in 2010.

I have been invited to assist Dr Lattas putting the conference together.

I will also be delivering an address, on an as-yet-to-be-determined subject.

Dr Lattas is gaining a reputation as a leading academic authority on the subject of micronations - particularly those with Australian origins - and has written a number of papers (both published and unpublished) on the subject.

Subsequent to the conference Dr Lattas is keen to publish a book of academic-standard essays on the subject of micronations. I have also been invited to contribute to that publication.

Dr Lattas and I are holding a conference brainstorming session this coming Saturday; any suggestions for conference content, possible guests/speakers to invite etc are very welcome.

I will post updates to this thread as things evolve.

For those of you from overseas who may have been thinking of visiting Australia, I'd suggest that timing your visit to coincide with the conference would be a Very Good Idea.

[Jason Mckerra]

I will be in attendance. I wouldn't miss an opportunity like this, I hope micronationalists from around the world are able to attend, it's a chance for a truly global gathering.

[George]

Indeed.

Those who are able to attend will find themselves participating in what I believe will be an entertaining, exciting, informative, historic event.

[Peter]

Australia! Why do you not do it on a real continent?

I am just kidding. I hope there will be teleconferencing facilities, I will be in Germany and there is no chance I would be able to go to Sydney. Best of luck, though, and keep us updated!

[Chas Jago]

Hmmmmm across the ditch, must look into this one, Alteria might send some representation

[George]

As far as I'm aware, fares for flights across the Tasman remain at record lows; best to take advantage of them while they last!

[George]

Nov 17, 2009 21:03:52 GMT 10 Peter said:

Australia! Why do you not do it on a real continent?

We got tired of waiting for the rest of the world to get their act together, and decided to just lead by example instead. Again. ;D

Nov 17, 2009 21:03:52 GMT 10 Peter said:

I hope there will be teleconferencing facilities, I will be in Germany and there is no chance I would be able to go to Sydney.

I'm not sure about live teleconferencing - but if not, I'd certainly expect that we'll be able to make video recordings of the various presentations available online afterwards.

[Zandrovia]

That would be great for those of us internationally who may not be able to attend.

[davidv]

I wonder what celebrations are being planned in Hutt River...

[George]

Probably the usual gathering of several dozen local/international guests and film crews to witness flag-raisings, award-givings, speech-makings and church services.

Here's this year's effort...

...and here's a wonderful picture of the reigning royals with their 2 eldest sons, and their Bangladeshi acolyte.

Mr Chowdhury is holding a copy of The Holistic Nature of Reality, the latest weighty tome on the subject of Hermetic Qabalist numerology and related blathering obscurantist nonsense from the pen of Prince Leonard.

His Highness has produced quite a number of largely incoherent papers and books on this subject over the years. I have several of them in my posession - and one of them basically asserts that not only is the foundation of Hutt River a sign of the approaching Apocalypse, but that Prince Leonard is the Messiah (!).

Someone should tell Tallini that someone's already staked a claim on his particular brand of pseudo-religious idiocy.

;D

[a1]

Is this an invite-only event?

[George]

Errr no, otherwise I wouldn't be announcing it to the world in a public forum.

It's an academic conference that anyone can attend - so long as they register in advance, show up at the designated time/place, and pay a 20-something dollar registration fee.

I imagine we'll soon be establishing a website to call for the submission of papers and other content, provide further details of the agenda, and facilitate online registration.

When we do, you'll hear about it here.

[a1]

Oh excellent - I'll consider attending as well. It's great that something like this is happening here in Australia!

[George]

Great to hear.

Given that Australia has such a preponderance of well-known micronations, I think it's a natural location for the first such event.

[scott]

I agree with some of the others, I think a live web feed would be perfect. Much goodness for broke college students. Would love to watch videos from that.

[Jason Mckerra]

I wonder if many of the Birtish Israelist nutters will be in attendance...

[George]

I hope so.

Given that His Holy Huffing Hoity-Toityness the Tzarina of the Dewackjob Empire is unlikely to be there, it'd be nice to have an alternative cretin-du-jour on hand, so that they can be punched in the face in the interests of rationality, sanity and common human decency, whenever the general consensus calls for it.

;D

[George]

Due to circumstances beyond my control, my scheduled get-together today with Judy Lattas has been postponed until Wednesday... so if anyone has any ideas they'd like to put forward, you now have a few extra days to aprise me of them.

[Jason Mckerra]

Ideas...

Bugger the live streaming, K.I.S.S, but it's definitely worth creating a video record of presentations/proceedings and uploading them (youtube etc).

People to invite... off the top of my head, it would be great if the conf could attract someone from Sealand, and of course someone from Hutt River.

Are there any anti-cult groups with a focus on British Israelism? If we could attract someone with that sort of focus it would be an interesting counter point to the variety of nutters who will show up.

A lot of the British Israelists and other secessionists (including Hutt River) make use of a variety of British legal documents, it would be interesting to attract someone who has perhaps studied the Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights 1686, and the various other documents that the kooks keep siting, from either a legal or historical perspective.

APRA. It would be a delight to somehow get a perspective from some part of the Australian state, and APRA seems to be the govt body that Australian micronations are most likely to come in conflict with. Obviously the Aust govt tends to have a "don't even acknowledge their existence" approach to Australian micronations, so this might be particularly hard.


Other ideas: Micronational ephemera, some kind of display or show case would inevitably prove popular, it seems to be the most interesting part of the micronational world to an outside observer. Gotta hang plenty of micronational flags around the place at the very least.

[George]

Thanks - a number of excellent ideas in there.

[Jason Mckerra]

ooo, it has a name now? PoliNation?

[George]

yes... as in "Poli want a crackpot?"

Seriously though, "Poli" as in "many".

Judy thunk that up.

[Jason Mckerra]

And there I thought it was something of a pun, as in

Pollination / PoliNation

Fertilizing many nations.

[George]

I think the word fertilisation, or a reference to micronaional proliferation, may have been mentioned in Judy's message.

hmmm... perhaps the greater-great-micro-mini-maxi-megasphere needs a micronational non-proliferation treaty.

[Jason Mckerra]

nah, the more the merrier! The cream will float to the top, and we will skim it

[George]

Indeed.

...per the resolutions we passed at last month's meeting of the Evil Conspiracy for the Dastardly and Underhanded Takeover of the Greater-Great-Micro-Mini-Maxi-Megasphere by George and Jason. (aka E.C.F.T.D.A.U.T.O.T.G.G.M.M.M.M.B.G.A.J.).

[George]

Today I was supposed to meet Judy Lattas for lunch at Dangar Island, an hour's drive north of Sydney.

After arriving at the ferry wharf with 10 minutes to spare, I turned the key in my vehicle's door, to lock it.

The key broke off in the lock.

An hour later a locksmith arrived.

After 30 minutes fluffing around he announced that he hadn't been supplied with the right key blanks for my car by the despatcher, and would have to return to Sydney to obtain them.

A further 90 minutes later he returned, cut me a new key and charged me $125.

At that point I decided to give up on the meeting with Judy.

It is now re-rescheduled for Thursday week 3rd December.

Inshallah.

[Queen Anastasia of Ruritania]

We regret that the Kingdom of Ruritania will be unable to send a representative to the Conference, but We would appreciate it if either Our flag or Our coat of arms might be displayed. Both can be found on Our website: www.Ruritania.net

This is an important step forward for Micronationalism and We will follow the event with great interest.

[D. N. Vercáriâ]

Nov 19, 2009 11:37:45 GMT 10 George said:

...and here's a wonderful picture

Hm... looks like a meeting of Transsylvanians. ;D

[Jason Mckerra]

How is planning for the conference progressing? Any need for a website yet?