Archives June 2015

Despite repeated assurances that no Northern Territory remote homelands would be closed, a lack of government communication has left leaders in the Arnhem land community of Milingimbi believing it to be inevitable.

Residents' concerns have been outlined in a petition sent to the chief minister, Adam Giles, the local government and community services minister, Bess Price, and the federal Indigenous affairs minister, Nigel Scullion, and signed by 135 elders and senior people. [node:read-more:link]

BOOK REVIEW: Hannah McGlade bravely addresses the complex issue of Aboriginal child abuse, arguing that Aboriginal child sexual assault has been formed within the entrenched societal forces of racism, colonisation and patriarchy, yet cast in the Australian public domain as an Aboriginal ‘problem’. She believes that we should be guided by Indigenous human rights concepts and international Indigenous responses. In doing so she believes that we can help to stem the harm to our future generations. [node:read-more:link]

Nigel Scullion, federal Indigenous affairs minister said
the commonwealth did not seek an assurance from the Northern Territory government that remote Indigenous communities would remain open before it proposed a change in funding arrangements. The federal government set aside a one-off payment of $155m in the budget for the territory government to take full control of municipal services. In the 2014-15 financial year, the commonwealth provided nearly $21m for municipal services in 376 NT outstations and homelands. [node:read-more:link]

Murrumu Walubara Yidindji, the former Canberra press gallery journalist previously known as Jeremy Geia, who has renounced Australia to live under tribal law in far North Queensland has been booked for using his own Nations registration plates on his car. Murrumu is behind the establishment of an infant sovereign Yidindji government near Cairns. He is now the nation’s "foreign affairs and trade minister" and says he has referred the matter to his “attorney general for further investigation” [node:read-more:link]

Kokenarup massacre: In 1880, a family group of approximately 36 First Nations people were massacred about 15 kilometres from the Ravensthorpe in Western Australia's south west region. One account states that John Dunn, a farm worker, attacked and raped a young Nyoongar girl and in accordance with the Nyoongar lore of that region he was subsequently killed by Yandawulla Dibbs and a group of local Nyoongar men. Dunn's overseer sent out word of the killing, and returned with a large group of armed settlers who rounded up and slaughtered around 36 Nyoongar men, women and children. [node:read-more:link]

(PLEASE NOTE: The determined substitute name for the passing of the writer and performer of 'Brown Skin Baby' is Kwementyaye).

If you want to meet the best Australians, meet Indigenous men and women who understand this extraordinary country and have fought for the rights of the world's oldest culture. Theirs is a struggle more selfless, heroic and enduring than any historical adventure non-Indigenous Australians are required incessantly to celebrate.         [node:read-more:link]

'Grandmothers Against Removals' (GMAR) is leading a conference at Matagarup, the Perth Tent Embassy from May 24 - May 30, to strategise for the future and to march on May 26. The gathering will hold a National Protest on 'Sorry Day', May 26th, as this date marks 18 years since the release, of the 'Bringing Them Home' report. This report detailed the horrors of the Stolen Generations in the 20th Century, and called for urgent action to stop the continued removal of Aboriginal children from their families by 'child protection' agencies. [node:read-more:link]