Tour of French art – Aboriginal life before colonisation
Rare French paintings of Tasmanian Aboriginal life before colonisation to tour Australia, ABC News, By Sam Ikin 19 May 2015, A collection of 19th century French illustrations depicting Indigenous life in Tasmania and around mainland Australia before British colonisation will go on show in the state for the first time next year.
The drawings and sketches were done in early 1802 during Nicholas Baudin’s exploration of Australia.
The French explorer’s artists, Charles-Alexandre Lesueur and Nicholas-Martin Petit, meticulously documented their meetings with local Aboriginal people when they landed in Tasmania.
The pictures are owned by France’s Museum of Natural History in La Havre and will tour the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG), Launceston’s Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, the National Museum of Australia in Canberra and several other Australian galleries next year and in 2017………The French museum’s director Cedric Cremiere said he was proud to be able to show the works in Australia.
“It is wonderful that after that first French encounter with Australia more than 200 years ago, we can share these discoveries and sense of wonder with Australian audiences.” he said.
Tasmanian Arts Minister Vanessa Goodwin said the artworks were of huge importance to Tasmania.
“This partnership will allow audiences across Tasmania to see depictions of early Tasmanian life which are of enormous significance to the Tasmanian Aboriginal people and the Tasmanian community in general,” she said.http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-19/paintings-of-tasmanian-aboriginal-life-before-colonisation/6479650
Australia’s Aboriginals again threatened by nuclear radiation
Nuclear-hit Aborigines again in radiation danger https://linksunten.indymedia.org/de/node/144304 Verfasst von: Diet Simon, sourcing from beyond nuclear news roundup (Account: Nuclear Worrier). Verfasst am: 25.05.2015
Darren Farmer, a burly middle-aged Martu tribal man, told VICE online magazine that “the Martu people do not want this uranium mine. Everybody has said no.” But that hasn’t stopped the federal environment minister Greg Hunt from givingKintyre the green light.
The VICE article explains how poverty prompts some Martu to agree to mining on their country and how Darren Farmer and others are physically assaulted for opposing it.
Meanwhile four decades after test explosions of atom bombs in the Maralinga desert area of South Australia, which killed and maimed Aboriginal people, Indigenous people face barriers as they try to contribute to a parliamentary inquiry whether the state should start a nuclear fuel cycle industry.
A requirement for all submissions to be sworn in front of a justice of the peace makes it particularly difficult for Aboriginal people, people from remote areas and those with language issues to present their views.
The former Governor [Queen Elizabeth’s representative] of South Australia, Kevin Scarce, who heads the inquiry, is to inspect the Fukushima region of Japan,ravaged by nuclear reactor explosions.
One of the things the inquiry will consider is the storage of nuclear waste from other countries. The federal government is currently looking for a site to dump six cubic metres of nuclear waste that must return to Australia from France for processing this year.
The federal government had previously targeted Aboriginal-owned sites in the Northern Territory, including Muckaty Station, where agreements with Aboriginal governance fell through or stalled. Aboriginal women’s resistance also stopped a 2003 plan by the federal government to dump nuclear waste in South Australia.
The French state-owned nuclear giant Areva is offering to sell its ‘world leading’ nuclear technology to South Australia. “The offer is being reported in the South Australian media without a hint of irony,” comments leading anti-nuclear Australian activist, Jim Green. “A reality check is in order.”
Two former Australian prime ministers, one each from the Liberal [in name only, actually right-of-centre conservative] and Labor [only nominally left] parties have said it would be a good idea for Australia to take in all the world’s nuclear waste. Guess on whose lands.
Aboriginal cultural heritage depends on remaining on homelands
If Aboriginal people are forced off their land, who will pass down the stories?, Guardian, Kelly Briggs 22 May 15 Imagine what an unbroken link to the land, thousands of years old, feels like. IndigenousX host Kelly Briggs on keeping the light of culture burning bright “……………. People in this town work tirelessly to reinvigorate our languages, keep our stories strong and pass strength on through keeping the lights of pride in our culture burning bright.
Aboriginal leaders meet in Broome
Leaders unite to finish the land rights battle THE AUSTRALIAN, Natasha Robinson
MAY 20, 2015 Aboriginal leaders from across the country have pledged to forge a new path to lift their people out of poverty and dependence, placing property rights at the centre of a national empowerment agenda that would shuck off the bureaucratic constraints threatening to reverse the gains of land rights and native title.
A historic meeting of more than 40 indigenous leaders in Broome yesterday heard that the enactment of land rights and native title legislation represented the “high point” of Aboriginal rights in recent decades, with those rights relentlessly undermined ever since by policies that had failed to afford indigenous people a true stake in policy and enterprise.
The roundtable was notable for its close co-operation between political warriors from the land rights era and conservative figures, with a remarkable level of agreement between the Left and the Right.
Reconciliation icon Patrick Dodson, hosting the event on Yawuru land, said the fight for true control over property and local economies was the “common backbone” of today’s Aboriginal rights movement.“Many of the gains that we thought we’d made … are now being undermined and dissipated,” Mr Dodson said. “We have a lot more in common than we have that divides us.
“None of us have got the silver bullet or the single answer, but we’re all searching for the best interests for the indigenous peoples, not just our own groups, but across Australia.”…….
The roundtable was attended by more than 40 indigenous leaders from across the country, including Cape York leader Noel Pearson, Northern Land Council chief executive Joe Morrison, chief executive of the Aboriginal charitable trust KRED Enterprises Wayne Bergmann, North Australian Land and Sea Management Alliance chief executive Melissa George, Carpentaria Land Council director Murrandoo Yanner, National Native Title Tribunal president Raelene Webb and North Australia Land and Sea Management Alliance chairman Peter Yu. Mr Pearson said the initiation of the roundtable by Mr Gooda and Mr Wilson had “brought a really fresh angle” to discussions of economic development that were often divided along ideological lines……..
In cases where native title was extinguished, compensation was next to impossible for communities to obtain, the meeting heard. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/indigenous/leaders-unite-to-finish-the-land-rights-battle/story-fn9hm1pm-1227360833594
Community opposition to a national radioactive waste dump in Western Australia
A genuine commitment to volunteerism would require providing affected communities with ample time to deliberate on their willingness to host or live near a facility through publishing the full list of nominated sites.
Although the government stresses that it does not want to impose a nuclear waste facility on any community, there is no guarantee that this Government (or a future one) will not revert to earlier habits of trying to do so. Community consent is in fact not a prerequisite for its siting decision.
WA actually has state legislation in place prohibiting the storage of radioactive waste from outside the state. This means that, although the National Radioactive Waste Management Act gives the Minister the right to override state legislation, the voluntary and democratic aspects of the WA nominations are highly compromised.
Don’t waste the homelands: community opposition to a national radioactive waste dump in WA http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=17346
| By Anica Niepraschk , 15 May 2015 Western Australian iron ore company Ginbalbie Metals’ nomination of a section of its land to host Australia’s proposed radioactive waste management facility comes as the third known nomination in WA. The two-month nomination period for the project closed on May 5.Another known nomination comes from a landowner in Leonora, against local opposition but supported by Leonora Shire. The Shire had been keen on nominating freehold land itself but could not identify any suitable land.
The third revealed nomination from WA involves land in Kanpa, near Warburton in the eastern part of the state, and lacks support from the Ngaanyatjarra elders. Similarly, Ginbalbie Metals’s nomination of a land near Badga station in the mid west of the state faces opposition from the traditional custodians of the land. Neither the local community nor Yalgoo shire had been consulted on the nomination. The site is even subject of a current native title claim by the Widi Native Title Claimant Group. The group expressed its strong opposition to Federal Industry Minister Macfarlane, stating that ‘the proponent has displayed an appalling level of disrespect’ for the traditional owners by failing to consult them. They generally reject radioactive waste dumps and uranium mining on their homelands. Continue reading |
Aboriginal Land Councils distrust Northern Territory Government, reject it for running Indigenous outstation services.
‘Dysfunctional’ NT Government must not run Indigenous outstations, Northern Land Council and Central Land Council say ABC News 14 May 15 Two of Australia’s most powerful Indigenous land councils have labelled the NT Government “dysfunctional and welfare dependent” and “a failed state that is almost totally dependent on the Commonwealth” as they rejected an idea for the NT to take responsibility for Indigenous outstation services.
The federal budget made provisions for a one-off payment to the NT Government of $155 million in exchange for taking over municipal and essential services in remote outstations and communities.
But the Northern Land Council (NLC) and Central Land Council (CLC) have said the NT Government would not be able to adequately run the services and would result in community closures like those planned in Western Australia. Continue reading
Uranium mining companies are selectively buying off Indigenous people
Uranium Minefield: Middle Men Are Bleeding Aboriginal Land Dry, VICE May 11, 2015 by Jack Callil Buried in Australia’s soil is a third of Earth’s uranium, the largest reserve in the world. This means there’s big money in mining it. But standing on it are Indigenous Australians with native title rights to that land. The Martu people, only numbering only around 1,000, own around 136,000 square kilometers in Western Australia.
On the other side of the dispute is the world’s largest uranium company Cameco, which in collaboration with Mitsubishi, want to extend the Kintyre mine that was previously owned by Rio Tinto. It bears the name of an area cut out of the Karlamilyi National Park for mining in 1994.
Darren Farmer, a burly middle-aged Martu man, told VICE that “the Martu people do not want this uranium mine. Everybody has said no.” But that hasn’t stopped Environment Minister Greg Hunt, who last month gave Kintyre the green light.
This decision was made possible by the intricate mechanics of the Native Title Act. Indigenous Australians are forced to nominate a corporate body that represents them legally. In the case of the Martu people, theirs is the Western Deserts Land Aboriginal Corporation ( WDLAC). In 2012 WDLAC gave up Martu land for mining, and are nowworking with Newcrest Mining, Fortescue Metals Group, Reward Minerals—and Cameco.
WDLAC is currently under investigation for what VICE understands is the corrupt management of millions in mining profits. Continue reading
Australian govt turns from Northern Territory in search for vulnerable communities to host nuclear wastes
Nuclear waste dump unlikely in NT after land councils, stations refuse to nominate site ABC News, 11 May 15, By Anthony Stewart The Northern Territory appears unlikely to house the Federal Government’s proposed radioactive waste dump after major land holders fail to nominate a site.
The Federal Government began a renewed searchfor a site to store Australia’s intermediate-level nuclear waste and dispose of low-level waste in March this year. A formal application process closed on the May 5.
The ABC confirmed the Northern Land Council, Central Land Council, and Northern Territory Government had not nominated any land. Gilnockie and Supplejack Downs Stations also decided against participating in the process.
In a statement, the Federal Government refused to confirm whether any other organisation had nominated land.
“Details on nominations will be made public following the close of the nomination process and consideration by the Minister for Industry and Science. On current timeframes, this is expected in July 2015,” the statement read………
Anti-nuclear campaigner Lauren Mellor said it was the end of a long fight against nuclear waste in the Territory. “It’s very good news. We have spent the last decade with residents and traditional owners of the Northern Territory fighting a nuclear dump process,” she said. “The Federal Government has pulled out of the trenches in the Northern Territory.”
She said the fight had been pushed to other parts of Australia. “Unfortunately our concern is they will go and target another vulnerable community as they’ve done many times before to try and push them to house a national or even international dump,” Ms Mellor said.
Several organisations in both South Australia and the Western Australia have indicated they have nominated land under the process. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-11/nuclear-waste-dump-unlikely-in-nt/6461078
Thousands rally across Australia against closure of Indigenous communities
Melbourne city centre blocked by protests over closure of Indigenous communities – as it happened, Guardian, Helen Davidson @heldavidson 1 May 15 [excellent report and pictures]
Thousands of people joined rallies in towns and cities around Australia and overseas to protest against threatened withdrawal of funding from remote communities Tens of thousands have attended reportedly peaceful rallies across Australia and New Zealand, protesting against the threat of closure of remote communities in Western Australia.
The largest rallies in Melbourne and Sydney began at 4pm, severely disrupting Friday peak hour traffic. The Melbourne rally blocked a major intersection and Flinders st Station. Protesters intend to move to Kings Domain where they will set up a makeshift camp for two nights.
Some protesters in Sydney have moved on to the Redfern Aboriginal tent embassy after thousands walked down Sydney’s George St, delaying some public transport.
Between 500 and 1000 attended a Perth rally, as well as thousands more across Sydney, Canberra, Darwin, Adelaide, Alice Springs, and 1,000 in four New Zealand cities. …..http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2015/may/01/protests-at-proposed-closure-of-remote-indigenous-communities-live
Australians heard the social media call from Aborigines threatened with removal from their lands
Family harnesses power of social media to drive protests against forced closures of Aboriginal communities, ABC Lateline By Ginny Stein 1 May 15 Pressure is growing across Australia against plans by West Australian Premier Colin Barnett to close scores of remote Aboriginal communities.
A call to protest has spread across social media with rallies in capital cities across the country. But the protests had their origins far from any big city.
Layangali Bieundurry and her brother Nelson Bieundurry are from Wangkatjungka, a remote Aboriginal community on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert with a permanent population of approximately 200 people.
Although internet access is slow in Wangkatjungka, the call to protest against the Government’s threat to close up to 150 communities started there thanks to family support, and then spread nationally and now globally. “We knew that all our family were on Facebook, so what we did, we just set the page up and started sending out messages throughout Facebook and that is how most of our family knew,” Ms Bieunderry said.
“And then other communities started to jump on Facebook and started realising what the Government [was] going to do to us in the remote communities.”
#SOSBlakAustralia has since emerged, connecting people, communities and organisations with similar interests and concerns through the Twittersphere. “I want it to go into the ears of Tony Abbott, that’s where I want it to go,” Mr Bieundurry said………
Throughout the Kimberley, the threat to close up to 150 remote Aboriginal communities has raised both fear and anger. At Wangkatjunga, there is disbelief that the next wave in a long history of dispossession may soon hit.
The State Government has not stated which communities may close, sparking fear across the state………http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-30/protest-against-forced-closure-aboriginal-communities/6431558
United Nations forum supports Kimberley Land Council’s plea to save Aboriginal communities from closure
Forced evictions: Australian govts make way for uranium miners
50 City of Perth armed police raided an Indigenous homeless camp at Matagarup, and drove off mostly elderly women and young mothers with children. The people in the camp described themselves as “refugees … seeking safety in our own country”. They called for the help of the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees.
Australian politicians are nervous of the United Nations. Abbott’s response has been abuse. When Professor James Anaya, the UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous People, described the racism of the “intervention” , Abbott told him to, “get a life” and “not listen to the old victim brigade.”
The planned closure of Indigenous homelands breaches Article 5 of the International Convention for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP).
Forced evictions are Australia’s latest racist assault on Aboriginal People, Ecologist 28 Apr 15 28th April 2015 Australia’s deliberate and calculated attacks on its indigenous population carry many of the hallmarks of genocide, writes John Pilger. And things are getting worse, not better, as states that have grown rich by exploiting Aboriginal land evict and demolish remote Aboriginal communities. Australia has again declared war on its Indigenous people, reminiscent of the brutality that brought universal condemnation on apartheid South Africa.
Aboriginal people are to be driven from homelands where their communities have lived for thousands of years.
In Western Australia, where mining companies make billion dollar profits exploiting Aboriginal land, the state government says it can no longer afford to“support” the homelands.
Vulnerable populations, already denied the basic services most Australians take for granted, are on notice of dispossession without consultation, and eviction at gunpoint. Yet again, Aboriginal leaders have warned of “a new generation of displaced people” and“cultural genocide”.
Genocide is a word Australians hate to hear. Genocide happens in other countries, not the ‘lucky’ society that per capita is the second richest on earth. Continue reading
Australia breaches international law in evicting remote Aboriginal communities
In 2011, Barnett’s government displayed a brutality in the community of Oombulgurri which the other homelands can expect. “First, the government closed the services,” wrote Tammy Solonec of Amnesty International:
It closed the shop, so people could not buy food and essentials. It closed the clinic, so the sick and the elderly had to move, and the school, so families with children had to leave, or face having their children taken away from them. The police station was the last service to close, then eventually the electricity and water were turned off. Finally, the 10 residents who resolutely stayed to the end were forcibly evicted [leaving behind] personal possessions. [Then] the bulldozers rolled into Oombulgurri. The WA government has literally dug a hole and in it buried the rubble of people’s homes and personal belongings.
In South Australia, the state and federal governments launched a similar attack on the 60 remote Indigenous communities.
The closure of Indigenous homelands breaches Article 5 of the International Convention for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
Evicting Indigenous Australians from their homelands is a declaration of war John Pilger, Guardian 23 Apr 15 Australia occasionally interrupts its ‘normal’ mistreatment of Aboriginal people to deliver a frontal assault, like the closure of Western Australia’s homelands
Australia has again declared war on its Indigenous people, reminiscent of the brutality that brought universal condemnation on apartheid South Africa. Aboriginal people are to be driven from homelands where their communities have lived for thousands of years. In Western Australia, where mining companies make billion dollar profits exploiting Aboriginal land, the state government says it can no longer afford to “support” the homelands.
Vulnerable populations, already denied the basic services most Australians take for granted, are on notice of dispossession without consultation, and eviction at gunpoint. Aboriginal leaders have warned of “a new generation of displaced people” and “cultural genocide”.
The prime minister, Tony Abbott, has revived this assault on a people who represent Australia’s singular uniqueness. Soon after coming to office, the federal government cut $534m in Indigenous social programs, including $160m from the Indigenous health budget and $13.4m from Indigenous legal aid. …….
In announcing that the Australian government would no longer honour the longstanding commitment to Aboriginal homelands, Abbott sneered, “It’s not the job of the taxpayers to subsidise lifestyle choices.” Continue reading
Aboriginal women speak out for a Treaty
Aboriginal women on why Australia needs a treaty https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/58715 Thursday, April 9, 2015 By Rachel Evans & Richard Fan More than 150 people filled the Redfern Community Centre on March 20 to discuss a treaty for Australia’s first people.
Organised by Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney (STICS), the event was hosted by veteran journalist Jeff McMullen and televised by National Indigenous TV. As coverage of female Aboriginal voices are rare among mainstream discourses, their retelling of their pasts and hopes for the future captivated the room.
Natalie Cromb, a Gamileraay woman, said that a treaty “would help the Australian government keep its word to the Aboriginal people”. She noted the ongoing debates between treaty and constitutional recognition and argued that the British colonisers fashioned three legal ways to justify their occupation: “First it was settlement, second through conquest, then third through succession — where sovereignty was ceded and agreement was reached between the parties.”
Cromb observed that Britain occupied the land, declared terra nullius and declared that Australia’s Indigenous people were an absent, fading race. “Terra nullius was deliberate and the average Australian does not know about this history of rapes, murders, and genocidal policies, and that it was also used to deny compensation,” she said.
Cromb said that a treaty “is vital to our solution. It would be a first meaningful step. A treaty is the insurance policy we need to hold the government to account. But we are still at the bottom of the social pyramid. We are having water switched off in communities. We know constitutional change won’t stop the removal of our people.”
Amala Groom, a Wiradjuri woman and founding member of Aboriginal Rights Coalition (ARC) and STICS, noted that a treaty “would recognise the sovereignty of the First Nations over their land”, and secure the right of self-determination which was promised when Australia ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 40 years ago. Continue reading
Federal funding for South Australia’s remote Aboriginal communities
Future of remote Aboriginal communities secured by deal between SA and federal governments ABC Radio The World Today By Natalie Whiting, 13 Apr 15 Nicola Gage & staff The future of remote Aboriginal communities in South Australia has been secured by a deal between the state and federal governments.
There were concerns communities could close because of Federal funding cuts to essential services, including rubbish collection, sewerage, power and water.
However, a compromise announced this morning will see the Federal Government continue to pay for services in the APY Lands, for the time being. Continue reading
1 This month.
20 September –National Day of Action in Melbourne on the International Day of Peace
Help Aunty Sue Protect Her Land and Sacred Sites From Destructive Rocket Testing.
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Australians deserve the truth
about
AUKUS – https://aukuspublicinquiry.com/
PETITION – To: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Government
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
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