Australian War Memorial should include the war between settlers and Aborigines
Why does the Australian War Memorial ignore the frontier war? Paul Daley theguardian.com, Thursday 12 September 2013The battle between Aboriginal people and settlers is at the heart of nationhood but absent from war dead commemorations “……With the approaching centenary next August of the outbreak of the first world war, Australia is spending $32m to upgrade the memorial’s first world war galleries – part of meeting its mandate to help Australians “remember, interpret and understand” the country’s war experiences.
It is a broad and generous brief.
This mandate, however, has been narrowly interpreted by successive generations of memorial officials whose Anzac-centric focus continues to stubbornly exclude the fierce battles for sovereignty between Aboriginal Australians and pastoral settlers across the frontier, which are at the dark heart of Australia’s nationhood. Continue reading
First Aboriginal woman elected to Senate – the principled Nova Peris
Months ago, this website criticised Nova Peris, as being “parachuted in” as a laLor candidate for the election. We saw her as a tame puppet for Labor. How wrong we were!Warren Mundine – Tony Abbott’s Unelected Aboriginal Man for Australia
many Aboriginal people in the NT remain unconvinced of the elegance, and legitimacy of Mundine’s manifesto.
Maurie Ryan, Chair of the NT’s Central Land Council questions the LNP’s anointment of Mundine as head of the Indigenous Advisory Council.
The members of the [Central] Land Council find it unacceptable that policy affecting them may be dictated by somebody who doesn’t understand the issues affecting them. Unfortunately Mr Mundine seems to be unaware of the significant changes made in recent years and he needs to update his knowledge of the current situation in the Northern Territory
Abbott wins the election on this Saturday, Warren Mundine will most likely become the most powerful Aboriginal person in the country. He will lead the Abbott’s Indigenous Advisory Council, an as yet vague entity that will be unelected and, in the minds of many, an unrepresentative body providing Abbott with high-level policy advice in his “Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs” morph.Indigenous Land Under Attack through ILUA Indigenous Land Use Agreement
Australia: ILUA Indigenous Land Use Agreement Equals Indigenous Land Under Attack http://indigenouspeoplesissues.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17864:australia-ilua-indigenous-land-use-agreement-equals-indigenous-land-under-attack&catid=24&Itemid=57 Native Title lawyers and anthropologists are deceiving claimants of their true Native Title rights and interests Michael Anderson said from Goodooga on July 2:2013
Top Aboriginal body scathing about Abbott, and not keen on Labor, either
Peak Aboriginal organisation lashes Abbott and ticks off Labor BY:PATRICIA KARVELAS From:The Australian September 04, 2013 THE peak body representing Aborigines has criticised Tony Abbott for his lack of commitment to the organisation and failure to acknowledge the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, in an evaluation of the major parties that was sent to its members.
The National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples questioned the major parties on their commitment to advancing the interests of Aborigines.
It says the ALP supported the UN declaration in April 2009, and in 2010 gave moral and financial support for the establishment of the congress, but “regrettably the ALP has yet to address the declaration to any meaningful extent”.
The congress said it was not aware of the Coalition having made any official announcements on the UN declaration or the rights of first peoples.
“The Coalition has not expressed support for representation and decision-making,” it said.
It noted that the Opposition Leader had instead made commitments to manage indigenous affairs from the portfolio of prime minister and cabinet, and to establish an indigenous advisory council headed by Warren Mundine. Continue reading
Aborignal elders’ knowledge – the key to a sustainable Australia?
While we cannot go back to pre-European cultures because the society and the land has changed forever, we can now learn to respectfully take some of the knowledge our ‘elders’ have acquired over generations, and combine this with our modern methods of farming and land care.
This way, we may be able to forge new ways of caring for our precious land in more sustainable ways.
Respecting the elders of our land can help rehabilitate the environment Press Service International for Christian Today Australia – Mark Tronson Press Service International for Christian Today Australia – Mark Tronson Monday, 2 September 2013,The Bible exhorts us to respect our elders. It starts right near the beginning with fifth (sometimes regarded as the fourth) of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20 verses 1-17 and re-told in Deuteronomy 5 verses 4-21): “Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.”
Who are our Australian ‘elders’?
I was thinking about this when watching some of the episodes of the TV series ‘First Footprints’. A summary of this program can be found at: www.kimberleyfoundation.org.au
Aborigines, over time, developed land-management strategies that worked for them. They did not leave the land in its original pristine state, no human society has ever done that, but they learnt to manage the land and climate in the 200 or more different areas of Australia to maintain their food sources over many, many generations. Is our modern European land management strategy achieving this same result?
Asserting Australia’s First Nations Sovereignty into Governance
“The argument is twofold.
• Firstly, the question of jurisdiction and the right of the Shire tocharge rates from Euahlayi living within their own territory, as the
Euahlayi Peoples’ are now asserting their pre-existing and continuing statehood under our Law and custom.
• The second point of contention is that the Brewarrina Shire Council, like all other shire councils in Australia, have and are being paid by the
Commonwealth government of Australia, allegedly ‘illegally’, for their Aboriginal population, under a 1975 funding agreement between the
Commonwealth government and the Local Government Association of Australia.
This makes every Aboriginal man, woman and child legal tender and a commodity for shire councils throughout Australia, with no accountability.
Rates Case back on track Sovereign Union of First Nations and Peoples in Australia www.sovereignunion.mobi 30 August 2013
Contact Michael Anderson 0427 292 492
Convenor of the Euahlayi Nation and the Sovereign Union of Aboriginal
Nations and Peoples
ghillar29@gmail.com
www.sovereignunion.mobi
Michael Anderson said from Sydney today: “The Rates Case in the NSW Magistrates Court in Sydney is a contest on the question of sovereignty and what law now applies to the land.”
Anderson pointed out to the court that, in respect the Euahlayi Nation, there is now an active legal dispute on the question of jurisdiction.
When appearing before the Chief Magistrate in the Downing Centre, Anderson pointed out that correspondence has now been entered into between the Queen and the Euahlayi government.
“In 2010 the Euahlayi requested that Queen Elizabeth II investigate whether British or Australian records have deeds of cession by the Peoples
of the Euahlayi, or any formal British Admiralty declarations of war against the Peoples of the Euahlayi. Queen Elizabeth referred our request
to her Australian representative, Governor-General, Mrs Quentin Bryce, who responded on 12 October 2010, under the signature of Mark Fraser OAM, Deputy Official Secretary to the Governor-General. He confirmed that no such documents exist. Mark Fraser wrote on 12 October 2010: Continue reading
Shabby history of destruction of Aboriginal culture and land ownership
Rudd and Abbott charge the north Eureka Street Dean Ashenden | 19 August 2013 “……..Credit for getting this history under way goes to the pastoral grandees of the colony of South Australia. In the 1860s they funded an obsessive-compulsive alcoholic Scotsman to find out what lay between their northern border and the far coast, and how it could be got. John McDouall Stuart’s six expeditions found little to encourage them, but lust trumped reason, and South Australia set itself to be the first colony in history to found a colony. The two would fuse, in time, to become the Great Central State.
Dreams of imperial glory and speculative fortunes turned almost immediately into a long-running mixture of farce and nightmare. Eventually South Australia got lucky. In 1911 it managed to palm off its colony onto the newly-constituted Commonwealth of Australia. Astonishingly, the Commonwealth even agreed to pay serious money for it, nearly four million pounds, plus another 2.2 million for a railway line that had not even reached South Australia’s northern border, let alone made any money.
Believing, as had the South Australians before them, that there must be a way to turn space into land, the Commonwealth did what South Australia had done, with the same result. An official inquiry report in 1937 was scathing. It found that in the 25 years since the takeover the federal government had spent more than 15 million pounds and was heading further into the red. The previous year’s production had brought in 100 000 pounds less than the Government’s outlay for the year of 600,000 pounds.
But the inquirers nonetheless found that it can be done, if it’s done right. It prescribed the familiar medicine: ports, roads, bridges, railways, ports, industry development boards, the lot.
Much of what the inquiry wanted soon came to pass, but not in result of its proposals. In 1939, war saw tens of thousands of troops stream north to build roads, airfields, a port and other infrastructure. For the first time the white population exceeded the black.
Soon motor vehicles, aircraft, air conditioning and buckets of public money transformed the look and feel of the Territory, but ‘development’ remained elusive. In the Territory, and more particularly in neighbouring tropical Queensland and Western Australia, mining was the only big earner, not necessarily to the advantage of government revenues.
The kind of on-the-ground industries apparently envisaged by Rudd and Abbott — horticulture and agriculture particularly — were confined to coastal enclaves or to the margins of viability. Much of the north proved too hot, too wet, too dry, too far from markets, too barren or too pestilential, with the happy consequence that the frontier failed to do its grim work.
Instead of a near-obliteration of Aboriginal populations of the kind seen on the eastern and southern seaboards, northern Australia witnessed a slow-motion saga of sporadic violence and accommodation, of advance and retreat. Neither side ever looked liked winning, and neither ever looked like giving up.
In the aftermath of the Coniston massacres of 1928 both sides abandoned violence for other means, and since then both have used the law, politics, money and public opinion in hundreds of struggles over land and ‘culture’, some famous or notorious, most not, one side straining to gain ground, the other to resist and to recover.
That 160-year struggle now seems to be reaching a new stage. We like to think that the devastation of one population and culture by another is all in the past, but the apparent failure of Rudd and Abbott to notice that northern Australia is shared country suggests that there might be more to come.http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=37087#.UhP0g9Jwo6I
Australia’s Aboriginal Establishment – it’s a Patriarchy, (with a Marcia Langton token)
NACCHO political alert: 14 Aug 13 The Guardian reports Tony Abbott’s plan for Aboriginal Australians is fatally flawed by Louise Taylor Louise Taylor is an Aboriginal (Kamilaroi) woman and a barrister/solicitor practising in the Australian Capital Territory. Louise is the convenor of the Women’s Legal Centre, an Indigenous Law Centre associate, and a member of the Law Council of Australia’s Indigenous Legal Issues Committee. Her piece is written in a personal capacity (and not the views of NACCHO)
Perhaps you nodded along and thought “good, let’s get moving on this”. Perhaps you thought Mundine surely must have been given a mandate from community representatives. Or perhaps, like me, you wondered how this announcement was anything new……..
Abbott’s Garma speech invoked his “friend” Noel Pearson. Pearson was absent from any alignment with the Abbott plan. Curiously, Mundine and Abbott were the headline act in the mainstream media. A weird choice, given I’ve yet to see any major support from other Indigenous people or organisations for the Coalition’s plan with Mundine at the helm……….
I see a common theme in both camps – the almost complete absence of Aboriginal women at the national leadership table. It troubles me that the domain and face of national Indigenous leadership is portrayed consistently as Indigenous men.
Noel Pearson. Warren Mundine. Mick Gooda. Mick Dodson. Patrick Dodson. Where are the women? When Rudd and Abbott speak of their Indigenous “mates”, they always name men. There are many competent and capable Indigenous women who are thinking innovatively and deeply about solutions for their communities. Do we see or hear from them?…….
they are absolutely there – Andrea Mason, Fiona Jose and Jenny Hayes to name a few. But we are rarely treated to the benefit of their views at a national level. Apart from the formidable professor Marcia Langton, who we do see and hear from now and then, the debate is missing the presence of Indigenous women at what appears to be a crucial time in the shaping of policy.
We know this is not a reflection of what is going on in our communities, where Indigenous women are front and centre of the grunt work being done to improve outcomes and keep communities together. Perhaps Abbott considers Aboriginal women too busy “cowering in their houses or their huts” to participate in policy discussion directly affecting the lives of their families and communities. We have a new female co-chair of the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples, and I have yet to see one single mainstream media engagement with her – on anything. Is her number in Rudd’s contacts list? I wonder…… http://nacchocommunique.com/2013/08/14/naccho-political-alert-the-guardian-reports-tony-abbotts-plan-for-aboriginal-australians-is-fatally-flawed/
Australian Aborigines welcome refugees – and shame our politicians!
In an open letter to Rudd released on August 5, Aboriginal activist and president of the Indigenous Social Justice Association Ray Jackson said: “Both Nauru and Papua New Guinea are countries very susceptible to the rattling of the bags of silver proffered by Australian governments to allow us to dump what we see as ‘undesirables’ or ‘queue jumpers’ or ‘illegals’.
“They, of course, are none of these. Under the UN Declaration on Refugees they have every International Human Right to seek comfort and refuge here in Australia.
“You parliamentarians do not speak in my name.”
Aboriginal groups welcome refugees http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/54726#sthash.fMUMhBTG.dpuf August 11, 2013 By Kerry Smith Asylum seekers are welcome on Aboriginal lands in Australia despite the inhumane approach of both major political parties, the Aboriginal Provisional Government said on July 29.
Secretary Michael Mansell said: “As people who know what it’s like to be invaded by boat people we are in a better position to judge how the current boat people should be treated. Where the original boat people who took over our country were armed to the teeth and bent on conquest, asylum seekers in 2013 are unarmed and seeking sanctuary.
“The ancestors of Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott most likely came by boat. It is certain they never sought Aboriginal permission to enter our shores. It is hypocritical of both Rudd and Abbott, who gained all the benefits of migration to rise to the positions they hold, to deny other migrants the same opportunity. The only difference is that Aborigines are giving permission, not being ignored.
“Some may believe it strange that a people dispossessed and dominated by migrants over two centuries would welcome more. Asylum seekers are not trying to take over anything. They are hoping they will be treated as fellow humans escaping persecution and despair, willing to risk death on the high seas to gain access to a life Rudd and Abbott would deny them.” Continue reading
Warren Mundine , nuclear lobby’s Aboriginal spin doctor, enters election campaign
Christina Macpheson, 10 August 13, Australia’s uranium-nuclear lobby must be ecstatic. After all that Aboriginal opposition to their mines, and their nuclear waste dump plans, now their very own Aboriginal stooge has stepped in. Warren Mundine, former National President of the Labor Party, has well and truly jumped political party ship, to head a new Liberal party indigenous advisory council .
Warren Mundine has an impressive pro nuclear record. He has been promoting the nuclear industry , praising nuclear energy,saying that it is necessary for nuclear medicine. Most alarming of all, Mundine advocates the “full nuclear cycle”. That means Australia not only having nuclear power, but taking in nuclear waste from overseas countries.
Mundine’s nuclear lobbying activities have been documented on this website several times. He was appointed by Queensland Premier Newman to the uranium implementation committee. He is co-convener of the Australian Uranium Association’s Indigenous Dialogue Group,
There’ll be a few Aboriginal people who will,not be happy with Mundine’s latest effort. He’s been slammed in the past by Noongar anti-nuclear activist, Marianne McKay of the West Australian Nuclear Free Alliance.
Warren Mundine is a Director of the Australian Uranium Association
Nuclear Lobby’s Warren Mundine and Tony Abbott are kindred spirits
Indigenous affairs: Tony Abbott says he and Warren Mundine are ‘kindred spirits’ Coalition
leader wants to work in close partnership with Mundine, who would head a new indigenous advisory council under an Abbott government Paul Owen in Sydney and agencies theguardian.com, Saturday 10 August 2013
The Coalition leader said there was a need to convert all the good thinking from indigenous leaders such as Mundine, Noel Pearson and Alison Anderson into practical action on the ground.
“Warren and I are kindred spirits and I’m really excited at the changes that have taken place in thinking about these issues over the last decade or so,” he told ABC radio on Saturday morning.
Abbott said he wanted to work in close partnership with Mundine, who would head a new indigenous advisory council under a Coalition government, and said the arrangement could make the difference needed to improve indigenous lives…… Mundine, the executive chairman of the Australian Indigenous Chamber of Commerce, is to spell out his vision at the Garma Festival in the Northern Territory on Saturday night. That will reportedly involve abolishing a range of indigenous governance bodies and excising townships from community-owned land to allow for private ownership of homes and businesses….. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/10/indigenous-affairs-tony-abbott-warren-mundine-kindred-spirits
Aboriginal Cultural Landscape Rangers for Tasmania
Federal funds secure Tasmanian Aboriginal rangers to care for land http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-09/federal-funds-secure-tasmanian-aboriginal-rangers/4875112?section=tas Aug 9, 2013 The Federal Government has allocated almost one million dollars funding for Tasmanian indigenous rangers.
The $980,000 would be provided over three years to the Environment Department to help traditional custodians care for their land.
The money comes from an existing program. The Federal Environment Minister, Mark Butler, says the new Aboriginal Cultural Landscape Rangers would hit the ground next year.
“To ensure that there are indigenous employment opportunities connected to those values but also that there is the maximum opportunity possible to have those values explained to the broader Australian opportunity,” he said.
Muckaty nuclear waste dump on Aboriginal land – a misguided plan
Plan to use Aboriginal land as a nuclear waste dump is flawed and misguided
Radioactive waste management is difficult, but secretive deals made without Aboriginal Traditional Owners’ full consent are even more worrying. A transparent debate is needed. Dave Sweeney theguardian.com, 31 July 2013 This week, federal resource minister Gary Gray is talking radioactive waste with Aboriginal people in remote central Australia. Six years ago an Aboriginal clan group, the Northern Land Council (NLC) and the then Howard government signed a secret deal to develop Australia’s first purpose-built national radioactive waste dump at Muckaty, north of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory.
The commercial-in-confidence plan saw the clan group “volunteer” an area of the shared Muckaty Land Trust for the burial and above ground storage of radioactive waste in return for federal payments, promises and a “package of benefits” worth around $12m.
The deal was not known about or supported by the rest of the Muckaty Traditional Owners and remains the source of bitter contest, deep opposition and a Federal Court challenge. Now Gray is back to talk with the NLC about a second site nomination on Muckaty. Unfortunately the new plan appears to follow the old pattern of secrecy, exclusion and contest. Continue reading
Independent Aboriginal Government created – the Republic of Murrawarri
Aboriginals Create the World’s Newest Government First Peoples Worldwide, 26 July 13 The world is welcoming its newest government – the Republic of Murrawarri, a nearly 82,000 square kilometer territory stretching across northern New South Wales and Queensland in Australia, has declared its independence as a sovereign nation.
Murrawarri’s independence comes after a long diplomatic process. The republic, which has around 4,000 residents, officially declared their continuing independence and statehood on April 3, 2013. The declaration was sent to the Queen of England, who is the constitutional monarch for Australia, along with a request for documents that would prove the Crown’s official rights to governance of Murrawarri. Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
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