Mark Munk Ross is hip-hop guru Munkimuk — whose beats, rhythm, sense of humour and hard hitting themes have earned him the coveted title of “Grandfather of Indigenous hip hop”.
Mark has been working in a remote Aboriginal community at Brewarrina in north-western New South Wales, regenerating age-old fish traps that are the oldest known human-made structures, dating back farther than the pyramids of Egypt.
He spoke to Green Left Weekly about his recent projects.
New South Wales’ world-class public TAFE system is on its knees. The state government’s savage funding cuts and ongoing neglect has seen enrolments plummet and TAFE campuses, particularly in regional areas, fall into disrepair.
But the Coalition government’s “solution” is to further cut funding and replace practical learning with glorified internet cafes in already isolated regional areas.
Early childhood educators, from Cairns to Hobart and from Perth to Townsville; from big cities like Sydney to the smallest like Launceston, walked off the job on September 7 to demand equal pay.
Celeste Liddle is the National Indigenous Officer for NTEU. She is speaking at the Resistance: Young Socialist Alliance's Radical Ideas Conference.
Child care workers walked off the job at 3:20pm today to highlight the gender pay gap and to demand a fair pay rise. United Voice Queensland led the action involving workers from 20 child care centres in Queensland and 90 Australia wide.
Interview with Linda Revill (United Voice organiser). Also featured was Sharon Caddie (United Voice) reading a resolution calling on the federal government to fund a pay increase for child care workers.