Ghillar Michael Anderson

{{Short description|Australian Aboriginal elder}}

File:First day of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, outside Parliament House, Canberra, 27 January 1972. Left to right- Billy Craigie, Bert Williams, Michael Anderson and Tony Coorey. (38934424564) (cropped).jpg

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{{Use Australian English|date=July 2011}}

Ghillar Michael Anderson (born 1951), or Michael Ghillar Anderson, is a Euahlayi Elder and activist from Goodooga, New South Wales, in Australia.

In 1972 he was one of the four men who set up the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra, as a protest in the struggle for the recognition of Indigenous land rights in Australia,{{cite web|title=Aboriginal Tent Embassy: Icon or Eyesore?| first=Coral| last=Dow| url=http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;adv=yes;orderBy=customrank;page=0;query=%22aboriginal%2Btent%2Bembassy%3A%2Bicon%2Bor%2Beyesore%3F%22;rec=0;resCount=Default| work=Parliament of Australia| publisher=Parliamentary Library|access-date=6 July 2010| location=Canberra| date=4 April 2000|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131017110800/http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;adv=yes;orderBy=customrank;page=0;query=%22aboriginal%2Btent%2Bembassy%3A%2Bicon%2Bor%2Beyesore%3F%22;rec=0;resCount=Default|archive-date=17 October 2013|url-status=dead}}{{Cite news|date=1992-07-27|title=The Aboriginal Tent Embassy 20 years on|pages=30|work=Canberra Times|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article126938800|access-date=2021-07-07}} eventually becoming its High Commissioner.{{Cite news|date=1972-05-02|title=Aboriginal Embassy|pages=10|work=Tribune (Sydney, NSW : 1939 - 1991)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article237865882|access-date=2021-07-07}}

As a participant in the Australian Aboriginal Astronomy Project, Anderson has collaborated{{cite web | last=Lysaght | first=Gary-Jon | title=Asteroid named in honour of Ghillar Michael Anderson for the Aboriginal elder's contribution to astronomy | website=ABC News| publisher= Australian Broadcasting Corporation | date=6 July 2021 | url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-06/asteroid-named-after-aboriginal-elder-ghillar-michael-anderson/100268260 | access-date=16 July 2021|others= Updated 8 July 2021}} with academic astronomers Robert Fuller and Duane Hamacher[https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/799321-duane-hamacher Duane Hamacher, Associate Professor of Cultural Astronomy] University of Melbourne. Retrieved 6 July 2021. in sharing and documenting traditional star knowledge. He has been pivotal in researching the Emu in the sky astronomical interpretation, that recognises the space between the stars in the Milky Way as containing ancestral figures,{{Cite journal|last1=Fuller|first1=Robert S.|last2=Anderson|first2=Michael G.| last3=Norris| first3=Ray P.| last4=Trudgett|first4=Michelle|title=The emu sky knowledge of the Kamilaroi and Euahlayi peoples| journal=Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage|year=2014 |volume=17|issue=2 |pages=171–179 |doi=10.3724/SP.J.1440-2807.2014.02.04 |arxiv=1403.0304 |s2cid=53352158 }}{{Cite web|date=2021-01-19|title=Star Knowledge of First Australians|url=https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/astronomy/learning-the-star-knowledge-of-first-australians/|access-date=2021-07-07|website=Cosmos Magazine|language=en-AU}} the inspiration for the title of Bruce Pascoe's Dark Emu.{{Citation | author1=Pascoe, Bruce| author-link=Bruce Pascoe | title=Dark Emu: Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident? | date=2014 | publisher=Magabala Books | isbn=978-1-922142-43-6|url=https://www.magabala.com/products/dark-emu }}

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 addressing the repatriation of cultural material.{{Cite web|last=Fairley|first=Gina|title=Is custodianship outdated thinking for museums and galleries?|url=https://visual.artshub.com.au/news-article/opinions-and-analysis/museums/gina-fairley/is-custodianship-outdated-thinking-for-museums-and-galleries-262767|access-date=2021-07-07| date= 9 Jun 2021|website=ArtsHub Australia|language=en-au}}

In 2013, Anderson with other leaders, proclaimed a republic in Dirranbandi, Queensland. He was elected his nation's head of state and informed Queen Elizabeth II.{{Cite web|last=Debra|first=Jopson|title=Boomerang republic: One man's struggle to restart his country|url=https://www.sbs.com.au/feature/boomerang-republic|url-status=|access-date=2021-07-07| website=SBS |language=en}}