Homelands

Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Peoples have the potential to operate as an independent sovereign Nation state by virtue of the fact that they have an entry permit system (equivalent to a visa) and they have veto powers in respect to applicants seeking to come into their country. However, when the veil of power is lifted from their governance, it is evident that the Lawmen and women of the APY Executive Board do not understand the extent of their unlimited powers and most of their lands have been negotiated away through Indigenous Land Use agreements.

In the announcement made in recent days, Aboriginal communities in South Australia have suffered a 90 per cent cut to their funding. APY Lands – including Amata, Pukatja (Ernabella), Indulkana – have received no funding at all. These include big settlements as well as smaller communities and homelands. There is no funding for the Maralinga Lands. WA has accepted a one off $90 million for their 'transfer' grant and consequently announced 150 communities would be closed down. This has received much publicity, and the South Australian situation is much less known.

This is an analysis of "APY food showpiece becomes a ghost town" written by Michael Owen and published in The Australian 27 March 2015. The Watarru First Nations Community is in APY Lands in north west South Australia which sits at the foot of Mount Lindsay and the community has at times been known as "Mount Lindsay" - A market garden offered hope to the young community members, but it was defunded by the government and closed down before it was properly established, leaving everyone confused and hurting.

This is an analysis by Megan Bliss of "Aborigines must face up to the hard question" written by racist Gary Johns and published in The Australian 24 March 2014. Comment is given for the purposes of education and understanding, to speak up for the truth, to act, because history tells us that evil reigns while good people do nothing. The writer deliberately used an racist terms, patronising attitudes and tried to conveys disrespect towards all First Nations Peoples and encouraged the readers to accept his negative slant.

This 'cash for mining' is part of the plan that Tony Abbott, Colin Barnett and Twiggy Forrest have slowly been putting place for the past two years. A plan for government to hand out large sums of money to the big mining companies and forcing Aboriginal people into the mines. With displaced people from the forcing Homeland community members living on the streets allows the government to force them into work at the big mines or starve. This plan also includes government money for training Aboriginal prisoners in mining skills.

Here are the videos of the Canberra gathering, smoking ceremony, speeches and march. The speakers were Senator Rachel Seiwert (Greens), Nova Peris (Aboriginal Labor MP), Alice Haines (One of the key SOS Global organisers), Ghillar Michael Anderson (Sovereign Union), Nicole Culbong (Perth), Shaun Harris (WA), Gerry Georgatos (WA), Rod Liddle and Hamid Bin Saad (Kimberley). Stop the Forced Closure of Aboriginal Communities was an Australia wide rally and online event with international support.

In the 1950s the Spinifex people living in the Maralinga region in the Great Victoria Desert were dispossessed from their homelands to allow for atomic testing to be carried out by governments of the United Kingdom and Australia. The people were placed at Cundalee and later moved onto Coonana because of water issues. Coonana lies approximately 170km east of Kalgoorlie-Boulder along the Trans Access Road, Once a busy community but following the government bleeding the community of vital resources, it is now all but deserted.

An advertising campaign that explores the casual racism of Australians towards Indigenous people has been viewed more than 3.75 million times, but 20 per cent of respondents to a beyondblue survey still think it is OK to discriminate against First Nations people. It found Western Australia had the highest levels of discriminatory attitudes towards the first Australians, while 41 per cent of respondents in NSW said that "they were given an unfair advantage by the government".

An advertising campaign that explores the casual racism of Australians towards Indigenous people has been viewed more than 3.75 million times, but 20 per cent of respondents to a beyondblue survey still think it is OK to discriminate against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. It found Western Australia had the highest levels of discriminatory attitudes towards Indigenous Australians, while 41 per cent of respondents in NSW said that "they were given an unfair advantage by the government".

The government’s latest funding round has been accused of preferencing non-Indigenous providers and leaving many services unsure about their future. The Senate has supported a motion calling for an inquiry into the rollout of funding under the Indigenous advancement strategy, which has been described as confusing, fractured and systemically racist. WA Greens senator Rachel Siewert moved for the Senate finance and public administration references committee to examine the program’s tender process.