Racism

First Nations woman in prison 'made to go without medication for days'

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Meretta Kickett

A Perth Aboriginal woman sent to prison for unpaid fines says she was treated like a dangerous criminal and became very sick when forced to go without her blood pressure medication for three days.
At the watch house, she said she was asked for her signature for authorisation to obtain her medical records from her doctor. She was then sent to Bandyup Women's Prison where she asked if she could have her daily blood pressure medication, but was told it would take time to obtain authorisation from her doctor.

The man who calls himself by an Aboriginal name appears to have no interest in Aboriginality

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The article 'Jobs and education are the lifters' by: Nyunggai Warren Mundine, The Australian 3 December 2014 with Comments by Maurene Brannan

... as if it meant nothing, which it apparently doesn't to Warren - 'cultural authority' does not come easy, it takes a lifetime of dedication and education in the highest, most evolved culture on Earth.

'Catching up' - Ray Jackson, Indigenous Social Justice Association

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Ray Jackson ISJA

Ray Jackson's Media release covers the NSW Attorney-General, Brad Hazzard, as to his decision on the 33 year old death in custody of Eddie Murray, the brutal assault by Redfern police to Ms Kathryne Fisher when they forced their way into her home, and the related Kings Cross incident when the Kings Cross police had wilfully and recklessly fired six shots into the car, the Un-gagged Lex Wotten, and more to the Palm Island cover-ups and lack of justice and the successful Aboriginal Passport Ceremony in Sydney.

Abolition of suspended sentencing will jail the wrong people - Fascism alive and well

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Prison abuse

Tony had never been in trouble with the law but briefly lost his cool in a racist road rage incident he regrets. He'd been under stress, working long hours to keep up with his mortgage. His wife had just had their first baby and was a full-time mum. If Tony went to jail he'd lose his job and his family would be left totally without support. The court gave him a suspended sentance, which allowed him just one more chance. Come September 2014 the option of a suspended sentence will cease to exist in Victoria.

'I was stolen from my mother when I was two years old'

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It was 1943, I was two years old and my mother - an Aborigine - was married to a white Australian when he went and gave his life for our country.

My father was a soldier and was killed on the Kokoda Track and instead of giving his wife a war widow's pension, the bloody government came and took his children away. Because of my mother's Aboriginality. There were four children at that point in time and I was the third. We were split up, the four of us, we were split.

Hunter gatherers: Invented to undermine First Nations people

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The book argues the idea that the first Australians were hunter gatherers has been invented to undermine Aboriginal people.

"My message to my own people," he says, "is the rest of the country's not going to change if we don't stick up for our culture; and our culture was one where we had an agricultural economy. If we stick up for our culture, it'll be useful not just for us but for the whole of Australia, because some of those crops that our people were growing are going to be useful in the future."

'Nazi' cop Leanne Rissman, aka Sharia Anne, still on beat

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Leanne Rissman

A Queensland policewoman who launched a racist internet attack against an Aboriginal activist under a fake Facebook profile, where she also called for the banning of Muslims in western society, has escaped disciplinary action after undergoing "cultural training".

Leanne Rissman, who uses the pseudonym "Sharia Anne", was confirmed by an internal police investigation as being behind internet posts and emails in which she calls Aborigines "oxygen thieves" with a "disgusting aversion to work".

Cairns Grandma held in custody by police over $20 parking fine from 22 years ago

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A Manunda grandmother has been left "gobsmacked and humiliated" after police sent to investigate a crime at her home arrested her over a $20 parking fine incurred 22 years ago. The incident occurred after Ms Deshong reported a break-and-enter at her home in the early hours of last Friday morning, during which thieves stole her handbag containing valuable items including a diamond engagement ring.

She said police told her a forensics team might attend the scene for fingerprinting, but come Saturday morning she was told this wouldn't occur, instead on the following Monday, she awoke to three police officers arrived to arrest her for a 20yo parking ticket.

Australian First Nations Genocide: A search for the remains of another appalling example

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In the seven years the Bogimbah Creek mission was open, more than 100 First Nations people perished from illness and malnutrition - the result of appalling living conditions ... Now scientists from the University of the Sunshine Coast will try to return that knowledge to the island's K'Gari community, with the help of ground-penetrating radar.
In 1897, members of Butchulla clans on the island and on the mainland were rounded up and forced to live in the notorious Bogimbah Creek mission, under governments genocidal policy.