Archives August 2014

Around 30 First Nations men, women and children were killed and thrown from cliffs in 1828, in one the many British invaders mass murdering sprees. This is known as the Cape Grim massacre. The remains of one of the victims was a young girl named Naungarrika, who finally arrived back to her home state of Tasmania after 200 years of humiliation as a scientific and curiosity trophy.

The First Nations community will decide how to belatedly farewell Nungarrika, but it is likely to be in her own country. [node:read-more:link]

Geoff Clark said he and Michael Mansell are planning to travel to Cape York and Gulf of Carpentaria communities in late September to discuss plans to export beef to Russia.

Mr Clark said he had led successful Aboriginal trade delegations with the former Soviet Union in the late 1980s. “These (Russian trade) sanctions have nothing to do with our people and they have been imposed by people who do not represent us,” he said. [node:read-more:link]

Tony Albert, the winner of this year's National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award 2014 says the work was inspired by the police shooting of two Aboriginal teenagers as they went on a joy ride in Kings Cross in 2012.

First Nation teenage boys are often walking targets for bullies, racists and the police, so in Tony Albert's art piece "We Can Be Heroes" stands defiant, challenging the viewer to take aim at the red bullseyes painted on their chests. The painting consists of 20 portraits, each young man, including the artist and his assistant, emerge bare-chested from a black background in a variety of proud and bold poses. [node:read-more:link]

Western Australian law intended to maintain social responsibility is in grievous danger. This is because WA's parliament plans to revise legislation designed to protect Aboriginal heritage. The revisions will make it easier for developers to disturb this heritage. We have to take a step back tens of thousands of years to see why.

An overview by Dr Nick Herriman from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the School of Social Sciences and Communications at La Trobe University. [node:read-more:link]

There has been regular trading along the northern coast of Australia with other countries for many centuries before the British arrived. Here is an interesting find that puts some further light on the trading lines.

The coin was found on a beach on Elcho Island, part of the Wessel Islands off the coast of Arnhem Land, NT, during an exploratory expedition of scientists in consultation with the local traditional owners. [node:read-more:link]

The Martu people in remote Western Australia hunt kangaroos and set small grass fires to catch lizards, as they have many thousands of years. A University of Utah researcher found such man-made disruption boosts kangaroo populations – showing how co-evolution helped marsupials and made First Nations people into conservationists.

The findings suggest that Australia might want to encourage small-scale burning to bolster wildlife populations in certain areas. [node:read-more:link]

Tony Abbott tried to distract from the backdown of his governments proposed Racial Discrimination Act changes by announcing what appears to be another step towards an incarnation of a new Fascism - to be known as 'Team Australia'.

He said he is giving ASIO the same amount of money he stole from First Nations self-determination programs. He'll be spending it on looking at what we are watching on the internet and other related right-wing 'terrorist' paranoid behaviours. [node:read-more:link]