Archives March 2015

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.

The British Museum’s decision to loan rare aboriginal artefacts to the National Museum of Australia has sparked accusations of cultural insensitivity and threats of legal action from indigenous community leaders in Australia. The objects are to be included in an exhibition, Encounters, which set to open at the British Museum in April before touring to Australia six months later. The objects in dispute are three pieces of bark art – a shield, an emu carving and a scene the British Museum believes is of a kangaroo hunt.

The NT gov't has just granted permission to frack significant parcels of 'Country', including the iconic Bitter Springs region and surrounding Elsey Station, to a subsidiary of billionaire resources giant Gina Rinehart, Jacaranda Minerals. The deal comes at a time when the NT govt's recent Hawke Inquiry into the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing or 'fracking' confirmed that effective laws and regulations governing the shale gas industry were not yet in place, but it continues the granting licenses.

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.

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".

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.

The Djurin Ancient Lands are the Birthplace of the Balladong People and the Creation of the Nyoongar Nation. Here our physical, Spiritual, Cultural, and Political identity as a People and Nation was shaped. The Lands, Subsurface, Natural Resources, Waters and Airspace, was created for us to live in harmony with and care for by Maamin Nidger Yirrah our Creator. Here we first attained to Statehood, through laws and customs, which were and still are observed and practiced. Our people lived and still live in harmony with nature ...

This story paints is a damning picture with some people believed to be calling for the age of when young people leave foster, kinship/family and residential care to be raised from 18 to 21. However, this must be thought through very carefully, with input from all parties, including the wider First Nations communities. We don't want yet another patch-up job decided by bureaucrats and governments who always look for a quick fix to try and hide the gaping faults already built into their system.