Robbin’ Hood: The Kelly Gang, 1870
The Australian bush is notorious for harboring countless menaces to society: deadly spiders, snakes, jacked kangaroos, and, in 1878, Ned Kelly and the “Kelly Gang.”
Robin hoods to some, unconscionable criminals to others, Ned Kelly and his goonies were robbers, vigilantes, and bushrangers. Kelly, born to a family of transported convicts who were poor selectors with strong views against the Squattocracy and the Victoria Police, was in and out of prison for most of his young adulthood. Australia during the 1800s was not a hospitable place to live; squatters who had no legal right to land often were recognized as legitimate by colonial authorities, just by virtue of their being the first white settlers in the area. Despite the modern connotations of the term, by 1870 squattocracy had come to refer to the elite landowning class—the bane of existence for free spirits like Kelly.
In the aftermath of the Fitzpatrick Incident, in which Kelly and some of his family members were arrested for assaulting a constable supposedly in self-defense, he and his closest associates fled into the bush. Aided by multiple sympathizers, dodging the Victoria Police, and still committing ideologically motivated shenanigans along the way, the Kelly Gang remains prevalent—albeit underground.
Delegates will be sympathizers or members to the Kelly Gang, found in every social strata across 1870s Australia. Will Australia really be shaped by aristocratic landowners? Or is this an opportunity to create something better? More integrated, more equal, and more free? Can we truly trust all the delegates to have the ideologies of the Kelly Gang in their best interest?
Chair:
Greg Levesque
Crisis Manager:
Mahika Sharma
Gregory Levesque is a member of the class of 2025 in Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service. Originally from California just north of LA, Greg is majoring in Science, Tech and International Affairs, minoring in International Business Diplomacy and Diplomatic Studies. In addition to staffing NCSC and its sister conference NAIMUN for three consecutive years serving in every role from being a CA to on Secretariat, Greg also competes with Georgetown’s travel Model UN team as our most willing ad hoc warrior (he loves it for sure). When he’s not doing Model UN, you can catch him with his homies, engaging in patriotic American activities like defending Congress against TikTok ban fallout as the hill’s strongest intern, or putting Greg-themed stickers around campus, which is a favorite pastime of his. Greg has sold his soul to finance and venture capital, shilling for silicon valley so he can afford expensive food and a better house for his dog. He loves his life and has never cried once, except when Kevin Li leaves him :(.
Mahika Sharma is a member of the Class of 2027 in the Walsh School of Foreign Service, planning on majoring in International Politics with a hopeful minor in Journalism. She hails from Fairfax, Virginia (NoVA, for anyone’s who’s hip), and had the pleasure of competing in and staffing Model UN conferences for six years before finding home on the Hilltop. Aside from realizing she can’t ever escape the world of pre-ambs and points of inquiry—staffing NCSC a second time and serving as the Under-Secretary-General of Non-Trads for NAIMUN LXII—Mahika writes reviews for The Hoya, researches for The Free Speech Project, and spends a couple weekends roughin’ it in the outdoors with ESCAPE here at Georgetown. When her GCal isn’t looking like a total logistical nightmare, you can probably find her reading contemplative contemporary novels, watching trash reality TV (Dance Moms>>>), and/or yapping with friends on the front lawn. She can’t wait to meet you all at LII!
USG: Annabelle Kim
This committee is in the Non-Traditionals Organ, and your Under-Secretary General is Annabelle Kim. Committees in this organ are small crisis committees with highly specialized topics and distinct committee procedures.
If you have any questions about your committee, please reach out to as.kim@modelun.org.