{"id":978371,"date":"2026-08-03T18:21:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T18:21:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/978371\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T18:21:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T18:21:33","slug":"victoria-police-investigating-alleged-assault-at-camp-sovereignty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/978371\/","title":{"rendered":"Victoria Police investigating alleged assault at Camp Sovereignty"},"content":{"rendered":"

Activists from Melbourne’s Camp Sovereignty say they have been deeply traumatised after a member of their group was assaulted at the Indigenous protest site.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Sunday night, Ash Ni Mara, 37, was allegedly attacked by two strangers attempting to extinguish the campfire. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m feeling pretty shattered and scattered and quite bruised,\u201d said the Gunai, Gunditjmara and Palawa person.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I’m feeling shocked because it came out of nowhere, I was feeling angry too.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The attack occurred at the First Nations protest site, Camp Sovereignty, in Melbourne. It\u2019s the second time within 12 months that people at Camp Sovereignty have allegedly been attacked.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Cape<\/p>\n

Camp Sovereignty member Ash Ni Mara was allegedly assaulted at the central Melbourne site over the weekend. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Ash told the ABC that the female perpetrator entered the site filming on\u00a0her phone, while the male started to pull pieces of the wood out of the sacred fire and throw them around.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I was sitting with one of our sisters who was pregnant … and one of our aunties who is elderly and has some mobility issues, so I got up to respond,\u201d Ash said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI went up to him and said, \u2018what are you doing\u2019 and he said it was an illegal fire.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ash said they were then dragged six metres before being held in a headlock and repeatedly hit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Others that were here went to restrain him so that he would stop trying to assault me,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ash said.<\/p>\n

Ash was treated on site by paramedics who checked them for concussion and minor facial injuries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The two perpetrators fled on foot before\u00a0the\u00a0police arrived.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ash is known as a fire protector, a volunteer who maintains the continuous fire at Camp Sovereignty.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The camp is located in Melbourne\u2019s CBD, in the Kings Domain parklands.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It started in 2006 as a protest against the Commonwealth Games. In 2024 the sacred flame that sits at the centre of the site was reignited, using ashes transported from the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a sacred and significant site for First Nations people, and is where the remains of 38 Indigenous people were buried after being repatriated from the Museum of Victoria.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The site is maintained by volunteers as a part-protest and part-vigil, caring for the country where ancestors are buried.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Founder says attack \u201cvery disturbing\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Camp Sovereignty founder Krautungalung elder Robbie Thorpe said he was constantly worrying about the site.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be woken up in the middle of the night and be told that people have been assaulted is a real concern,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Robbie<\/p>\n

Camp Sovereignty co-founder Robbie Thorpe (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Mr Thorpe said the fire is an \u201cimportant part of Aboriginal culture\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s symbolic of our law and of our culture \u2026 it\u2019s kept alive permanently, [and] this is the way we connect with our ancestors and culture,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

“This is a place of peace \u2026 it’s very important to us all.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mr Thorpe explained when the fire is desecrated \u201cit\u2019s really disturbing\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We don\u2019t really know where this violence is coming from so that\u2019s a worry, otherwise we get on famously with everyone that comes here.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Thorpe said they are going to think of what security the camp has in place going forward.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Police still searching for alleged perpetrators\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Superintendent Zorka Dunstan told the ABC that police are considering the attack to be racially motivated.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this stage we potentially are, but will confirm that once we understand the motive,\u201d Superintendent Dunstan said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Several<\/p>\n

Camp Sovereignty began in 2006 as a protest against the Melbourne Commonwealth Games.\u00a0 (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Police patrols were unable to locate the offenders, and are currently canvassing CCTV within the area.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe aren\u2019t sure who they are at this point in time, but we have our Melbourne CIU investigating,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Superintendent Dunstan said police are likely to lay assault charges.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we determine what\u2019s applicable or what’s appropriate we will make those known,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Second attack within 12 months at the site\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, in Victoria\u2019s County Court, four men charged over last year\u2019s attack on Camp Sovereignty\u00a0pleaded guilty.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jaeden Johnson, Zack Dewaard, Blake Cathcart and Timothy Lutze pleaded guilty to one charge each of violent disorder, with Johnson and Lutze also pleading guilty to committing an indictable offence while on bail.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Last week, in Victoria\u2019s County Court, four men charged over last year\u2019s attack on Camp Sovereignty\u00a0pleaded guilty. (
\n ABC News: Danielle Bonica
\n )<\/p>\n

The men have all been associated with the National Socialist Network (NSN), a now disbanded, far right group.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The court heard that on August 31, after attending a \u201cMarch for Australia\u201d protest, the men were part of a wider group who stormed the camp, carrying sticks and flagpoles, and advancing despite being told to leave.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The men are accused of shouting racist and sexist slurs, and attacking individual camp members in groups of two or three.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

A number of people were injured in the incident, one suffering a fractured nose while others\u00a0had\u00a0cuts and bruising.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The men\u2019s lawyers argued they should receive a non-custodial sentence.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Activists from Melbourne’s Camp Sovereignty say they have been deeply traumatised after a member of their group was…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":978372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[11341,392684,10762,8991,4740,109787,392682,2816,50,392683],"class_list":["post-978371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-aboriginal","tag-ash-ni-mara","tag-assault","tag-attack","tag-australia","tag-camp-sovereignty","tag-camp-sovereignty-founder","tag-indigenous","tag-news","tag-robert-thorpe"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117032971249635765","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=978371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/978372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=978371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=978371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=978371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}