Last Saturday, my friends in the Blue Mountains held a protest at Echo Point in support of Julian Assange. Indigenous Elder Aunty Carol Cooper welcomed us to this sacred women’s space. The plan from there was for self-nominated speakers to mount an empty chair next to three locals wearing masks representing Edward Snowden, Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning. Each speaker took a couple of minutes to make their case. United in purpose, all was going splendidly until Snowden leapt from his chair to assail a newly arrived protester.

The new arrival was distributing little Australian flags to hesitant members of the crowd. People accepted them with the alacrity of someone handed an undefused bomb. Brave Snowden snatched those he could wrestle free from the flag-bearer and demanded an end to this insult.

The flag-bearer replied: “This is the Australian flag”. Threats followed back and forth with each promising to flatten the other. Thus our efforts to free Julian were delayed until the flag-bearer retreated and Snowden remounted his chair.