Human Rights

"We have never been given the opportunity to live in our own ways ... since occupation of our lands in 1829, we have been forced, by successive policies, to be a reactive people. Now we are trying to change to be proactive, but we need time to do that in our own way. We are in the process of re-piecing together our community with our own value system, starting here at Heirisson Island," said Bella Bropho at the Matagarup Refugee Camp on Heirisson Island, Perth, Western Australia. [node:read-more:link]

Rosie Batty was right to criticise the federal government's allocation of a mere $16 million over three years to family violence in last week's budget. By comparison, more than a billion dollars was set aside for national security measures, an issue that is arguably costing fewer Australian lives at the present time. But when it comes to introducing oppressive legislation on the basis of race, state and federal governments suddenly seem to become incredibly concerned about violence against women - Celeste Liddle writes [node:read-more:link]

A domestic violence shelter servicing 50 Aboriginal communities in the remote north of Western Australia has emerged as the latest project to miss out on funding under the Federal Government's overhaul of Indigenous funding. The women who run the Djarindjin safe house say they will have to shut their doors on June 30, if the decision is not reversed. - There is not a skerrick of evidence that abused women would be better off in larger towns and cities than in Ho,eland communities. Domestic violence is accelerated where alcohol is accessible. [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]

Suicides in First Nations communities are linked to extreme poverty and disadvantage from the beginning of life, intergenerational trauma, cultural identity, racialisation and racism. Often alcohol and substance abuse are considered by many as underlying causes but these are not underlying causes and rather they are at best contributing factors borne symptomatically of the conditions above.

This article and links to all many other articles by First Nation suicide expert Gerry Georgatos. [node:read-more:link]

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. [node:read-more:link]

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. [node:read-more:link]